The Rising of the Wave
by Sargent Snarky
Summary: When he logged in for the first time, he looked forward to spending time with his friend and maybe having a few adventures. He neither expected nor desired the ensuing disasters. [Novelization of the Orig. Games]
1. Prologue

.**hack/The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

**Genre**: General

**Rating**: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

**Summary**: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

**Spoilers**: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

**Note**: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

I do hope you will permit me this drivel. In a way, this will probably serve as notes for me for other .hack stories in that it is a basis, more or less, of how I tend to picture things in the games.

As of right now, I'm not sure how the whole thing will be told. Most of it will likely be told in the third person, but some of it may be told from Kite's point of view, or there may be snippets from others' points of view, as well.

* * *

_Yet to return, the shadowed one.  
Who quests for the Twilight Dragon  
Rumbles the Dark Hearth,  
And Helba, Queen of the Dark, has raised finally her army.  
Apeiron, King of Light, beckons... At the base of the rainbow they meet.  
Against the abominable "Wave," together they fight.  
Alba's lake boils.  
Light's great tree doth fall.  
Power - all now to droplets turned in the temple of Arche Koeln.  
Returns to nothing, this world of shadowless ones.  
Never to return, the shadowless one.  
Who quests for the Twilight Dragon._

- An excerpt from the Epitaph of Twilight

* * *

Prologue

"Ah, finally!" exclaimed a fourteen year old boy, sitting before his computer's monitor.

The flat-screened computer resided on a desk in the corner of his small room. Accompanying the screen and keyboard upon his desk were a game controller, a headset, two speakers, several jewel cases and their contents, an instruction manual and various personal affects, including two picture frames. One held a picture of the boy with his immediate family, which amounted to his parents and elder sister. The other contained a picture of the boy clowning around with his best friend, who appeared a bit older. There was also a can of soda (on a coaster, but only because of parental insistence) and a cup with various pens and pencils.

As for the room itself, it had a mattress in place of a bed or a more traditional bed roll in the opposite corner of the desk. A small table between its head and the wall served as a headboard and nightstand. On the 'bed' were, of course, pillows and sheets and two old and battered stuffed animals (one was a red fox given to him by his uncle, who had emigrated to America, and the other was a green dragon, given to him by his father, who was, for no apparent reason, a fan of the baseball team the Dragons) the teenager had retained from childhood. The only other furnishings were a set of shelves holding books, for the most part, and a small chest. There was also a shallow closet right next to his desk in which he kept his clothing, among other things.

The walls of the room were one green, the curtains on the window were another green, and his sheets were yet another shade of green. His desk lamp was even green. Yup, the teenager rather liked green. He wasn't wearing any now, but he often did. It was his favorite color. Which is why it might be a bit surprising that he didn't have green glasses frames. Nope, those were dark brown, unlike his eyes, which were a hazel sort of color, contrasting nicely with his black hair.

While that color might have been unusual in Japan, where dark brown, nearly black eyes were the norm, it ought not to have been unexpected with the boy's ancestry. But that's another story for another time. He did have a bit of Western blood running in him, but it makes little difference to this story.

Anyway, at the moment, his sister, who was the only one home besides him, was lying upon his mattress, reading a magazine, and she looked up. "Hmm?"

The boy glanced over at her. "I've finally finished loading and registering for The World." He looked back to the screen. "And now for a name…"

His sister thought for a moment. "How about Kite? No one outside of the family and Yasu's going to know who you are based on that name, and it's personal…" She grinned. "After all, we've only been calling you that for, what, thirteen years?"

'Kite' arched an eyebrow. "Ok… I guess that works." There was a pause as he typed it in, confirmed it, then considered a password. "Yasuhiko's probably already there, waiting for me… I should hurry."

"No, really?"

Kite ignored his sister's comment and typed in the password 'soccerfreak' and confirmed it. A few seconds later, after the information was processed and stored, Kite was informed that the installation was complete. It was at this time Kite noticed that he had new email. Three new messages, to be precise. So, he opened the new messages one by one, the first of which was from Yasuhiko, his friend.

From: Yasuhiko  
Title: Registered Yet?  
Message:

"_Hey, did you finish registering? What kind of character are you?_

_Oh, and like I said at school, you'll regret it if you use a smartass name. I'm Orca in The World, so keep that in mind. Don't call me by my real name!_

_You can be a different person while you're there… well, more like the guy you want to be. Anyway, I'll be at Root Town. Hurry up!_"

The second email was a Thank You and Welcome sort of message from CC Corporation, one of those automatic courtesy emails. And the third email was a brief explanation about some of the updates that had come with version 2.75 of The World and a referral to a topic on the BBS. Kite did little more than skim them before leaving his email browser; he didn't even bother to read any of the new News Flashes.

Kite grinned, a thrill of excitement running through him; he only hoped The World was all it was cracked up to be. Taking a deep breath, he clicked upon the icon for The World on his desktop and logged in…

Thus, his adventure would begin.

* * *

_Author's Notes_:

The First Chapter ought to be up tomorrow evening. I've got most of it written down already, anyway.

Anyway… Hey, guys! I know it's been a long time since I've written any fanfiction, and rest assured I do not mean and did not mean to abandon it. X.x I've just been so terribly busy and unmotivated. HOWEVER, getting (finally) the soundtrack of not only .hack/SIGN, but also the games (YES, they DID produce a CD with the 'best' music from the .hack games. It doesn't have all of the music, but it does have the good stuff.) has inspired me to replay the games.

And as long as I'm replaying the games, I've been taking notes on them. And as long as I'm taking notes on them, I've decided to write a novelization of the games, since no one else (that I have found) seems to.

The reason I'm not working on my other fanfictions is that I've been out of .hack mode for so long that it'll take me a while to get back in the swing of things, and this piece will serve that goal nicely. ALSO, it will take me a while to reread them and remember where I was going with the individual works. Besides, on a few of them, part of the reason I stopped was because I had to replay a certain point in the game because I couldn't remember what happened.

Also, please note that this project will take me a while, as I have to replay the games, record all that is going on in the games and then write up a chapter based on my notes.

As I said, artistic liberties have been taken with some of the dialogue, emails actions, etc. So don't flame me on that account. Otherwise, if you really want to flame me, do so. I don't care, though I'd LOVE you IF you would CRITICIZE this piece by TELLING ME WHAT I DID WRONG and HOW I might FIX it. Also, telling me what you liked would be good, because then I might add more of the same in later.

Thanks for putting up with me…? Er…

Summary of First Chapter:

Kite receives a basic tutorial from Orca-sensei, but, towards the end, as they are leaving the dungeon, things fall apart. Or at least the dungeon does.


	2. Chapter I

.**hack/The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

**Genre**: General

**Rating**: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

**Summary**: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

**Spoilers**: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

**Note**: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

* * *

Chapter I  


The opening page of The World glowed in Kite's eyes and reflected off of his glasses lenses as he skimmed it. There were three options to select from: Log In, The Boards, and Log Out. Though the boards were bound to be interesting, Kite didn't want to make his friend wait, so he went ahead and clicked Log In, and in he went, after selecting the Delta server as his server to log into, of course.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Sever: Root Town

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

The first thing he saw was a black screen with a blue box stating where he was headed and a little loading bar. Once the bar was full, a brief flood of color, and then he saw in third person, his newly created character appear amid three golden rings within a cobblestone square in a teeming city.

Kite stared about in awe of the graphics, which were astoundingly realistic, and of the sheer wonder of it all. After taking a moment, also, to admire his very green character, he adjusted his headset a bit and picked up the controller. His character was a 'youth twinblade' model wearing a green hat over somewhat messy teal hair that fell into cerulean eyes. Upon each cheek was a red double triangle. Upon his body was a cream colored turtle neck covered with a green vest and tucked into brown gloves. On his back was a pack of sorts, and on his legs was a pair of green pants that puffed around the knee, where they were tied off around black socks, which were in turn tucked into boots with turned cuffs. About his waist was a belt with a loop on either side for his twin blades.

"Hey! You made it," called a nearby voice that was familiar, and yet not so.

Kite turned to see a taller man with a bare chest, half of which was blue green. The upper half of the man's face was also colored the same way, dived from the normal flesh tone with white. The color contrasted oddly with his brown hair, but it didn't clash too badly. He held an ornamented and unrealistic broadsword, rested upon one shoulder, marking him as a blademaster or a heavy blade, although the blade wasn't quite so ridiculously huge as that. Around his private parts, the man had a short skirt, but that, save for a pair of knee high boots, a cuff on each wrist and a strap across his chest, was his only clothing. He truly looked the part of a barbarian warrior.

Kite was a little taken aback. "Uh…"

The man grinned. "Hey, it's me: Orca, the Blademaster."

Recognition dawned on Kite. "Woah!" he exclaimed. "You look so different from the real Yasuhiko. Nothing like the real you."

Orca frowned. "Hey, in the game I'm Orca! Regardless of what I am in reality, I'm pretty well known here," he said in a dignified tone.

Kite chuckled a little.

"What…? Something wrong with how I look?"

"No, you look great," said Kite, adding on a keyboard :-) onto the end of his words.

Orca rolled his eyes. "Anyway, take this."

A moment later, a little message popped up in Kite's vision, asking of Kite wished to accept Orca's Member Address.

"Member Address is the Flash Mail address you can only access in The World," explained Orca. "With Flash Mail, you can exchange messages with others in real time, as long as you're in The World. It's mostly used by newbies to contact players to form a party."

Kite nodded, accepting the Member Address.

"Try it out by inviting me to join your party," said Orca. "You read the manual, right? So you know the controls?"

Kite gave him a Look.

"Hey, I was just making sure," said Orca, mock-defensively. "Anyway, open the menu and select Party. Under Add you can see a list of all the member addresses you have. Just select one you want to add to your party and then type up your mail and send it. Since you just started," he added in a playfully condescending tone, "you probably only have my member address. Poor, Kite… he's a lonely soul."

Kite rolled his eyes and sent the mail.

A moment later, Orca said, "Ah, got it! 'Wilt thou humble thyself to joineh my party, O Orca-sensei?' Ha ha." Orca accepted the Join Party request. "It's kinda weird mailing each other when we're fact to face. :-) Anyway, my name ought to appear under your screen. That means I'm in your party. Oh! By the way, Flash Mail is only available in Root Towns. And you can't contact people when they're not logged in. People do have lives, you know. We're not online 24/7! In other words, don't always count on the same members to form a party. So, try to get as many Addresses as you can. You'll have more fun that way."

"Yes, O Orca-sensei," Kite said in a drone.

Orca pointedly ignored him. "Well, how you play is up to you, but since EXP and stuff isn't divided among party members, you really don't benefit if you go solo."

"Whatever you say, O Orca-sensei."

"… Ok… Well, why don't we head off? There's nothing to worry about. I found a perfect place for newbies!" Orca then pointed, with his sword, to a twirling golden hoop that held a filmy blue portal within it. "This is the Chaos Gate, a sort of transfer device that takes us from one place to another. Put your target over it and select it. In The World, each play zone's called an Area, and it's determined by three Keywords. Selecting New Keyword will take you to the Keyword Screen. At the top is the Entry Plate. You put three keywords in one by one for each part, A B and C. You can get them either from the list on the lower left, or from reading emails, the Board, and from other players. Sometimes you get special ones by completing events.

"Anyway, you can select these three from the list, or just say them allowed, and it records them. Bursting, Passed Over, Aqua Field. Oh! One more thing. You see the symbol next to the keywords? That's the Greek letter for whichever server you're in. This happens to be Delta. The stuff on the bottom right is the Area Status List, and the shiny jewel things indicate which keyword takes precedence over certain area status things and whatnot, but you can just read about that in your user manual or on the board, 'cause it's pretty boring to explain."

"It is, sensei? I wouldn't possibly think anything could be boring," said Kite.

"Oh, shut up, Kite. Just select Warp so we can get going to Delta, Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field."

Kite did so, and the pair disappeared amid three golden, rune engraven rings.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta, Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field

0 0 0 0 0 0

The field they materialized into was basically a huge flat grassy plain. Some random stone claws or fangs curved out from the ground, and there were random bits of castle scattered about as well as, for some inexplicable reason, some wells. The detail was, while not as great or varied as Mac Anu, still astounding.

The sky overhead was a beautiful blue, with small puffy clouds rolling by on occasion, moved by a light breeze that rustled the grass beneath the low background music. The occasional generic hawk wheeled overhead in a fixed, never ending pattern. Kite was, nevertheless, a little awed by the wide expanse; the field was more impressive than he'd thought, given the screenshots he'd seen.

Orca interrupted his friend's contemplations of the local panorama with the comment, "Before we get going anywhere, you'll need to know about Camera Control."

Kite listened as Orca briefly explained the controls, then finished with, "And so, basically, if you're like most newbies and don't use the camera, you'll be dead before you know it. Cheers!"

Kite lifted an eyebrow. "What a happy thought."

Orca grinned. "Anyway, practice with it a bit. I just told you the controls. And remember, when the battle starts, constantly adjust your camera so you can see what the heck you're fighting."

"Yes, O Orca-sensei," said Kite.

"All righty," continued Orca as if his friend had not spoken. He gestured to the field at large. "Moving along… this here is the Field. It's the lowest level in the area, and it's where the easiest monsters generally are. It's also the only place from which you can return to town. To do so, open the menu and select Gate Out. There's a bunch of different field types, which can be set with different keywords… but I'll let you figure all of that out on your own. The area's also have elements, which are determined by field type and weather, and the monsters that appear coincide with those elements. And the items you'll find, too."

Kite sighed and asked, "Please say there isn't a quiz next period?"

Orca laughed, a fiendish gleam in his eyes. "No, but you'll be expected to have all the controls and the elements memorized by class tomorrow."

"Ok." Kite then began to sing: "There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and – What?" Kite broke off his singing as Orca started to edge away, a look of bemused horror on his face. (1)

"That was very scary, Kite," said Orca. "Please never do that again."

Kite grinned. "Sorry… I learned the song from an old CD of my uncle's."

"Uh-huh. Anyway… Let's get going! Oh, wait… look at the map in the top right corner of your screen. You see the red down arrow? That's the entrance to the dungeon. We'll be going there soon. In its deepest level, there's a Gott Statue that usually holds a rare item or two. The goal, basically, is to reach this statue and take whatever's in it. However, enemies are often tougher in the dungeon, so gain some levels above before you head below."

"So, how do I gain these levels, then?"

"You fight monsters, of course!"

"… What monsters?"

"Well, you see that golden portal over there? Monsters are found inside those, and if you get close enough to them, the monsters come out. Although, sometimes treasure chests pop out instead. There is a backstory as to why the monsters are in the portals, but I won't bore you with a World history lesson. Wait a moment… here…" Orca used an item called a Fairy's Orb.

Kite glanced up at the map, after receiving the message that fairies were investigating the map, and saw that yellow markers of the portals had appeared.

"By using one of these," Orca explained, "hidden data on the map becomes visible, see? The yellow markers are portals, as I'm sure you can figure out."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm boring you again, aren't I?" Orca once more grinned. "All right, let's go pick a fight! Head for that portal."

The pair of them ran towards the nearest portal, then halted as it flashed and, with a twitch, faded away, leaving behind a Goblin. The Goblin was a little grey creature that, well, looked like a goblin. This one had a small curved sword in its right hand, and it twittered where it stood, making 'gobby' noises. Kite's cursor fixed upon the Goblin and turned red, while the Goblin's abbreviated stats appeared in the upper left portion of his screen.

"What do I do now?" asked Kite, stepping away from the Goblin as it made a clumsy swipe towards the twin blade.

"Attack it. Since the target cursor is red, now, you can attack it," said Orca, then continuing with a few words on which button to press.

"Ok," said Kite as he commenced his offensive on the Goblin, which squeaked and made rather poor attempts to defend itself. Still, since Kite himself was low level, the Goblin was able to avoid a few of the blows.

After several more hits, the Goblin's HP was reduced to nothing, and Kite looked almost surprised that he'd done it. After a moment, he looked to Orca. "Hey! I beat it:-)"

"You've started to get the hang of it, yes," said Orca.

"Yeah," said Kite, tone a little uncertain, as he noted a mischievous gleam in Orca's eyes. "It's not that hard… Oh dear, what is it?"

"Hm? Oh… nothing," said Orca, his tone the paradigm of innocence. "Anyway, let's try using skills. Open the menu and select Skills."

"Ok."

"Choose Repth; it's under recovery. Repth is your basic healing spell."

Kite did so and selected himself as the target, as the Goblin had gotten once slice in, knocking him down a few HP. His character avatar automatically made gestures in the air and a glowing white, circular symbol flashed briefly above his head, while a white circular glow also flickered beneath his feet. Then, soft whitish sparkles and a little bit of light surrounded him for a moment as he was healed.

"That's it," said Orca. "Pretty easy, huh? You can target party members for recovery and remedy skills, and the enemy for attack skills. And you can only apply skills to targets within your view. Again cometh the camera use."

Kite nodded with an audible sigh.

Orca chuckled. "Heh. Well, you must be sick of me at this point."

"Maaaybe."

"Tough. Anyway, keep in mind that, if you've got party members, you can always ask them to do something. Whether or not we do depends on whether or not we acknowledge you as the party leader and have respect for you. Or if what you're asking seems sensible. I mean, if you tell them to cast water spells on a Water tolerant critter, well, they're not going to."

"Ok then," said Kite, smirking. "Heal me, O Orca-sensei!"

Orca rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said. "Even though you're already healed and don't need any healing, I'll be nice." Orca then cast a spell called La Repth. "It's good to be the boss, isn't it? Don't let it go to your head, though, newbie. Ah well… By the way," he added after the spell healed them both a bit. "You can also activate many of your spells and skills by voice. You have to speak clearly, of course, but once you get to know the skills better, it's pretty darn useful. Anyway… that's it for now. I'll follow you for the moment… just do whatever. Get used to the controls, fight the other enemies on the field, and head to the dungeon when you're ready."

"Do you really need to tell me what to do all the time?"

"Of course! I'm your elder."

"Only by four and a half months."

"So? It's enough."

Kite sighed again and turned, running towards the nearest portal. From this one came another goblin. Kite immediately attacked it this time. As fitting with his defensive stats, his character avatar moved to block one or two blows. Once Kite had defeated it – with Orca watching the whole time – the twin blade turned to his friend.

"Aren't you going to help me?"

"Mm… Probably not for a little while."

"Why?" asked Kite, frowning.

"Because I'm at such a high level compared to this realm that I could kill it in one stroke"

"Oh. Um… What's this pool, here? I can target it, and it says that there's something strange about the pool – would I like to throw something in?"

"It's a Spring of Myst. Throw a weapon or piece of armor in there, and this creepy tear drop shaped monster comes out and asks you if you've lost a golden or a silver axe. Say neither, and you'll get the weapon or piece of armor back, but depending on the time of day, the weather, and all of that stuff, it'll either go up or down in level and change name. You don't have any spare armor yet, so there's no point, really."

Kite nodded and turned his eyes back to the rest of the field. He had just started towards the next golden portal when a soft twang sounded to his right, and from the corner of his vision, he saw something dancing. Stopping, the twin blade turned to face a… mandragora?

"Orca, what is that thing?" he asked, pointing with a blade. "The cursor says it's a Mandragora. But, is that an enemy or a plant or what?"

"It's Grunty Food," explained Orca. "You can read about Grunties on the Board. Just collect them for now by selecting them and pressing the confirm button. They'll automatically be put in your inventory."

"If you say so," said Kite, a little dubiously. After he selected the Mandragora, which kept repeating its name as it bounced and twanged, it vanished from the screen and the background music continued, uninterrupted by the noise some plant… thing.

The pair went on to the next portal, but Orca was the one to kill the Goblin, and he did indeed kill it in one move.

"I told you I would," said Orca.

"I never said you wouldn't!" protested Kite.

"But you were thinking it, weren't you?"

"Um…"

They then continued on to the final of four portals, and, upon killing the goblin contained therein, Kite received a message stating that all Field Portals were cleared.

"There were only four portals in this entire field?" he asked, lifting his eyebrows. "Shouldn't there be more? I mean, this is a pretty big area…"

"I told you," said Orca, starting towards the dungeon, his arms hooked over the flat of his blade, which rested on the back of his shoulders. "This is a newbie area. Think of it as a tutorial place. It's not going to be that difficult. Anyway, let's go into the dungeon, shall we?"

The blademaster lead his twin blade companion over to a low stone building with a single entrance. This entrance consisted entirely of stairs leading down into an impenetrable darkness. There were, oddly enough, however, two yellow spotty sort of flames, one floating on either side of said entrance.

Kite poked one with his blade, and nothing happened. "Why are these yellow things here?"

"Hell if I know… just go down the stairs," answered Orca.

And so down the stairs they went.

Their screens blacked out for a moment, with nothing save a loading message at the bottom, but it was barely a second of time before they found themselves in a gloomy stone dungeon. The walls were a dark blue grey, with a few faint designs painted here and there, as well as guttering torches spaced at intervals along the wall. The background music was quiet and sinister, and Kite only noticed it because it was a contrast to the livelier tune of the field.

"Now we can start exploring the dungeon," exclaimed Orca. "Remember, though, you can't Gat Out in a dungeon. You've got to go back to the field, instead. You can use a Sprite Ocarina to warp to the surface from anywhere in the dungeon, but you can't use it during a battle."

Kite yawned. "Oh now… not more lecturing from Orca-sensei."

"Oh, shut up." Orca then pointed to a yellow tan chest that was sitting not far off. "This is the Treasure box, but you knew that, right:-)"

Kite gave him a deadpan look.

Orca laughed. "Just making sure. There are two types of these. Normal and booby-trapped. This one's yellow, so it's normal, but the other colored ones are booby-trapped. Since this one's normal, just go ahead and open it."

Kite did so, and the box disappeared, right after opening. The twin blade received a Resurrect. Orca led him to another box and pointed to it.

"This one's blue, so it's booby-trapped. Try to open it, and you're screwed. Just use the Fortune Wire on it. This'll disarm the trap. And Fortune Wires are the cheapest thing under the digital sun, so you ought never to worry about not having one. Here… I'll use one." A light flash appeared around the box, and it changed colors to the tannish yellow. "Open it."

"Yes, mother," said Kite as he opened it and received a Gale Breath.

"I could just leave you here, you know, n00b."

"But you wouldn't, of course. Hey, what's a Gale Breath?"

"It's a magic scroll. It lets you cast magic spells without using SP or having equipment with a specific spell."

"Cool."

The pair then went through the door into the next room. A couple steps in, Kite paused, looking around warily. He couldn't place it, but he knew something wasn't right. And then, a few steps later, the background music stopped, and they heard a bang. At the far end of the hall was a T intersection, and suddenly a pale girl dressed in a shimmering white dress and with white hair floated across it speedily. She paused for barely half a moment, turning her head to look at Orca and Kite before speeding on.

Close behind her followed a strange and fell creature. It was difficult to describe, but it appeared to be of man shape, but made of sections of rock with stylized eyes on several parts of its body besides the head, which didn't seem to have any. It also floated without touching the ground. But the thing that stood out the most was its crimson staff. Coming to a point on one end, the blood red staff ended on the top with a large circle, like the eye of a needle, but with a random bit slashing across it in one 'corner.' This monster didn't seem to care that Kite and Orca were there.

And then, as quick as they had come, the monster and girl were gone, disappeared. A few seconds later, the background music returned. Kite frowned and Orca looked quite worried.

"What the-?" the blademaster exploded, turning to Kite. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah," said Kite, slowly. "Was that thing chasing her…?"

"Seems so," Orca said, nodding and turning his gaze back to the now empty hall ahead. In a softer voice, he continued, "But a thing like that…? On this level…?"

"Huh?" Kite was a bit confused and now his friend's worry was catching. "What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh… uh.. nothing. Nothing to worry about."

"Uh-huh." Kite sounded unconvinced.

"Look, I'll tell you later," said Orca. "Let's just finish the dungeon."

"Ok…" Kite still didn't sound quite mollified.

Orca remained silent as they ran down the hallway to the intersection, and he kept glancing around, not exactly nervously, but not exactly calmly either. Since the girl and the thing had headed from left to right, Kite turned right, and Orca followed. They went through the door at that end into another room that held… nothing. Nothing except a treasure chest.

'It's a dead end,' thought Kite, now more confused than before. 'That girl…'

Orca said nothing.

Kite queried, "Orca?"

"Mm… Just get the treasure chest, and let's move on."

Kite did as he was bid. "Hm.. A Speed Charm. Does that just speed you up?"

"Yeah." Orca said no more; he seemed distracted, but Kite put it off to him being just as confused about the enigmatic girl and monster as he himself was.

They went back into the T hallway and to the left side of the intersection. Just before they went through the door, before, a though occurred to Orca, and he stopped Kite.

"Wait," he said. "You should know that you can use Fairy's Orbs in dungeons, too, but there's not much point if you're just wandering around, because the map forms as you go, and the Fairies only show you the level you're on. You have to use a new orb for each level. However, if you're only there on a quest for the Gott statue or something, it can be useful for plotting the quickest route."

"Ok."

And with that, the pair entered the next room. Two steps in and a metal gate slammed shut over both doors. Kite started and crouched down.

"Better watch out," exclaimed Orca. "We're trapped in here!"

"Wha-?"

Orca suddenly started laughing. "Don't take it so seriously. It's pretty normal. In the dungeons, there are rooms with traps everywhere. The only to get out of most of them is by activating all the magic portals in the room and killing the enemies."

"All right then…"

"Let's go!" Orca lunged for the portal, and it dissolved to reveal another Goblin. It was easily dispatched. And so they moved on to the next room.

And this next room proved to be the staircase down a level.

"How many levels are in this dungeon?" asked Kite.

"Two, I think," answered Orca as they went down.

An even briefer loading time than before, and then they were in a small empty room with a staircase behind them. Therefore, they went into the next room, which was a giant cross. So, when they reached the middle, they went left first.

"Another portal?" said Kite as they were trapped in this one with more monsters. "They're everywhere."

"Yup. Get used to it."

This time, though, instead of a solitary goblin, there were two monsters, including a type Kite hadn't seen before. (which was to be expected, considering that this was his first field and dungeon ever) He made a comment to that effect and Orca snorted, killing the Goblin Mage, which was the new monster, with ease.

"It's a Goblin Mage. And I've encountered up to five or six monsters in one portal before. Only finding one monster on higher levels is rare, you know."

After Kite dispatched the Goblin and collected the treasure, they went back to the cross and took the room directly across from their current position. In that room there was yet another portal.

"Oh, that's nice," said Kite, as only a treasure chest was left behind by the portal.

"Yup. That's what happens when you get lucky," said Orca.

"And all of the dungeon portals are clear. So that means no more monsters."

"Right. So, let's go get the Gott Statue booty!"

So they left that room and took the only branch of the cross they had yet to travel upon. It lead them, conveniently, right into the chamber with the Gott statue. Kite stared at the statue with bemused wonder. The stone figure seemed to be a spiky haired demon holding a sword, which did seem a bit odd, but not so terribly out of place. Around the statue, which was floating above a relatively shallow pit, there was a golden ring, rather like one of the rings around a portal, carved with runes.

"And this is the room we've been waiting for; the Gott Statue room. There's only one of them at the dungeon's deepest level, and you can get rare items from it." Orca sighed, and Kite heard him crack some of his joints (probably stretching) through the microphone. "That's enough adventure for now, no? Go ahead and grab the treasure and we'll get back to town."

"All right. Don't you want some?"

"Nah. You're the newbie. If we had a Sprite Ocarina, we could warp out of here, but we don't, so we must backtrack."

"You only mind because you're lazy."

"True, but besides the point. A lot of the dungeons are really boring and rather monotonous after you've cleared out the treasure and monsters."

"Yum… monotony," said Kite, referring to an incident some years ago in which Orca had, for varying reasons, said that same phrase. It need not be recounted here, as it was one of those 'in the moment' things that would make little sense anywhere else.

"Oh, shut up and get your booty."

Kite opened the chest and received Steel Blades, a Grunt Doll and Yellow Candy. The golden ring around the statue disappeared, and the statue fell to the bottom of the pit, no longer needed as a guardian now that its treasure was gone.

"What did you get?" asked Orca.

"Steel Blades, Grunt Doll and Yellow Candy."

"Well, equip the blades, as they're better than your newbie weapons, and you can sell or trade the doll and candy. Otherwise, they're useless."

Kite wasn't exactly paying attention, for he had moved to the edge of the pit and looked over. "Does that always happen?"

"Yes," said Orca. "Let's go, already. I want you to meet some of my online buddies… slowpoke."

"Sorry," said Kite. "I've not played a video game in a while, and it's not like I've ever played this one before."

And with that, they left the room, heading back down the cross. As soon as they reached the center, where the four branches converged, there was a thud and static flashed across their screens.

"What the-?"

"What's happening?"

The two players gazed around in fear and worry as the dungeon dissolved around them, leaving them upon a strange island made of dirt and raw data, floating in a void with other segments of the same weird turf floating in the air here and there. The pair were just getting oriented again, from the burst of static and abrupt transition when the ground rippled and was tinted with colors. The white girl appeared at the source of the ripple, alone this time, and she gazed at them with large light blue eyes.

"Or… was the rumor true?" Orca breathed.

The girl floated close to them. "Take this," she said, a large book of some kind appearing in outstretched hands, whose skin was milky white.

"Huh?" Orca stared at it, unsure.

"Please take this," said the girl, her voice holding a desperate, pleading note, despite its surface calm. "There is no time. Take this please."

"What is it?"

"A great force. The power it holds can bring forth salvation or destruction at the whim of the user."

Orca took the book, and it vanished. "You're-" he began, but broke off just as quickly.

A sudden fear grew in the girl's eyes and she backed away. "It's coming!" she cried, a final warning before vanishing before their eyes.

At the same instant, the air nearby rippled in the same manner as before, and the floating creature of before appeared, red wand first. Kite stared at it, held by some unknown fear he couldn't place.

Orca, sounding truly anxious, cried to Kite, as the blademaster ran forward to attack the creature, "Run! It'll kill you!"

But Kite did not run. Where was there to go? Instead, he stared wide-eyed, the controller shaking in his sweaty hands, at the monstrosity and at his friend who attacked it. Again and again Orca struck at the creature, but to no avail. None of his hits or techniques even registered as having hit, and the creature began to block them with its staff.

"The hell?" he cried. "What is this?" A moment later, voice brimming with frustration, he shouted, "There's something wrong… nothing works!"

The creature apparently grew weary of the game, for it struck out with its staff, sending Orca sliding backwards. A strange transparent polygonal orb appeared around Orca and shattered. A moment later, Orca's arms and legs were jerked out straight, and he gasped in horror as his digital body was lifted up, pinned to the crimson wand, though not actually touching it.

The creature lifted up one of its arms, taloned fingers outstretched, and palm towards Orca. A strange light blue ring of polygons, a strange ornate bracelet, with occasional other colors flickering in it, too, materialized around the monster's wrist. It rotated a little, and then a larger ring of prongs sticking out, yet angled and kinked towards Orca appeared as well, as if unfolding. A moment later, and occurring almost instantaneously (rather like lightening) from each of the prongs shot forth many rays, both of pure color and light and of data code streaming towards Orca. The strands crossed together just in front of Orca, as though a lense were there, focusing the beams before they scattered again into Orca and going straight through.

There was a quick flash, a hint of something being broken, and, with a scream of pain from Orca… no, from Yasuhiko, that moment was frozen in time. It was frozen into Kite's memory as well. Then, the beams retracted into the bracelet, and it folded. Orca crumpled to the ground, unable to move a muscle, and the staff disappeared only to reappear in the creature's claws.

Orca, lying upon the ground, unmoving, somehow gasped out, "No… I… It wasn't supposed to be this way…" His eyes, half open and focused upon nothing, twitched towards Kite. "I'm sorry! Get out of here!"

An incomplete orb made from polygons and random swirls of light closed about him, and with a shattering sound, Orca faded to grey and was gone. But the shining bok remained where Orca had been. Before the creature could move to get it, however, the book vanished. Kite could do nothing but stare at where his friend had been for a moment, but his eyes were inexorably drawn to the monstrosity.

The creature didn't even bother to physically attack Kite. Instead, it lifted its arm, and the bracelet began to form upon it once more. Kite, eyes wide and expression twisted with shock and fear, slowly lifted his arms before his face in some vague, vain attempt at protecting himself. However, the creature never got an opportunity to do to Kite what it had done to Orca, for a short white staff suddenly rocketed from above into the ground. A shockwave pulsed from the top, and the monster recoiled. If it had a voice, it would have undoubtedly cursed. But it did not, so instead, it turned away. Kite was enveloped in a digital sphere not dissimilar from the one that had surrounded Orca before he vanished. Only this orb did not signal his destruction.

The last thing the boy saw before he was pulled into unconsciousness were the words System Error flashing across his view in stark red letters.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Kite's digital body lay in a realm of digital scraps, of pieces of coding merged together in a hodgepodge of styles and appearances. The body did not move and could have been dead for all one could tell by looking at it. However, the Woman in White, who watched from her perch in the sky, knew he was alive. Absently fingering her short white staff, she watched as the shining book the girl had earlier given to Orca floated gently down from the sky and dropped into Kite's own inventory. How… interesting…

_

* * *

Author's Notes_:

And there is the first chapter. Their lengths will vary depending on segments of the game, more than anything else. Thanks for reading it!

Do forgive the boring tutorial bits, but... I felt that it would be good to give you guys a feel for how Kite is progressing. I mean, he starts out as a newbie, after all.

Now, I know that I'm only supposed to reply to reviews through email or Review Reply, but Rayne neither left me an email address nor logged in to review, so... here's a reply to Rayne's review:

Sorry! -points to author's note of last chapter- I can explain my lack of updating those... Even though I really should have... -hangs head in shame-

Opah means dance, doesn't it? Or something like that... And Yasu is short of Yasuhiko... but I'm probably pointing out the obvious, right? And yes, there's a CD. It has the following bits of music: Mac Anu, Grass Field (both battle and regular), Aura's Theme, Blackrose' Theme, Cathedral music, Balmung & Virus, Mia's Theme, Piros' Theme, Dun Loireag, ALL EIGHT Phase musics (including Skeith), Birth of Cubia and one of the Cubia battle songs, Carmina Gadelica, Forest Field music (battle and regular), Lios & Helba's theme, Net Slum, Fort Ouph, Grunty music, Macha's Arrival, Lia Fail, Drain Heart, the Ending music, the music in the Credits and the Ressurection of Mia.

And that's the music on the game CD. I won't bother listing off any of the music from the SIGN soundtrack, 'cause that one's much easier to find. As is the Legend of the Twilight one. Ah well.. Thaks for reviewing.

EVERYONE ELSE: Please Review? Please!

And what the hell? I just noticed that, should you have an exclimation point and a question mark next to each other, deletes one of them -pouts- Not fair! WHY does delete punctuation like that? -wails-

Chapter II preview sort of thing:

Kite, wanting to find out exactly what the hell happened to his friend Yasuhiko, decides to log back into The World to search for clues, for he feels that whatever has placed his friend in the hospital is a direct result of what happened in The World. Right after he logs back in, he meets a girl by the name of Blackrose, and she more or less shang-hais him into accompanying her to a strange and interesting field... a field like no other.


	3. Chapter II

.**hack/The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

_Genre_: General

_Rating_: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

_Summary_: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

Spoilers: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

Note: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

I do hope you will permit me this drivel. In a way, this will probably serve as notes for me for other .hack stories in that it is a basis, more or less, of how I tend to picture things in the games.

Chapter II

"Kite?" The worried voice of an elder sister called, knocking on the door to his room.

Upon receiving no answer, she frowned and opened the door, wondering what the soft cry and thud she had heard were. What she saw was quite unexpected. Kite lay slumped upon the ground, his chair a foot or two to his right, the headset and his glasses knocked askew, and the controller dangling from its wire from the computer.

For a long moment she just stared, blinking, then rushed to her brother's side. "Kite!" she called, pulling the headset from his face and turning him onto his back. "What's the matter? Please wake up!"

But he did not stir for several minutes, and it was only when she picked him up and staggered to his bed to set him down that he stirred. And it was another couple of minutes after that, as she picked up the phone, ready to dial the hospital, before he woke up with a groggy start. He stared around the room as if he'd never seen it before for a moment or two before it occurred to him where he was. And then, adjusting his glasses, he looked to his sister in silence.

"Kite..? What the hell happened?" asked his sister, sounding frightened.

He hesitated a moment, eyes now falling to his computer, whose monitor was blank, the computer apparently off. Then he lifted a hand to his head, massaging his forehead and saying, "I… don't know." His voice was confused and shaky. "I must have fallen off my chair and banged my head." A weak smile. "Tipping it, you know."

His sister looked a bit dubious, but after a moment, she nodded. "Maybe you should go to bed early. And if your head is aching, or you get a bump or get nauseated, then let me know and I'll get you to a doctor. I'll get you an ice pack."

Kite nodded slowly, his mind not really all there. He was, instead, running over all that had happened in his mind. 'What was wrong with Yasuhiko?' he wondered. 'Why was he so upset?' Kite would have called his friend up right then and there, but he felt it wise to wait until he himself had steadied a bit. Holding a hand before his eyes, Kite could see he was shaking pretty bad.

After his sister had returned with an ice pack and some water, and then had left for her own room, promising to check back in on him in a half hour or so, Kite carefully went back to his desk, where he tidied up a bit. Then, he picked up the phone. The boy hesitated for a long moment before actually dialing Yasuhiko's number.

Ring. … Ring … Ring …

This went on, but Kite received no reply. Why wouldn't Yasu even pick up the phone? Even more confused and worried, Kite returned to his bet to think things over.

The next day was a Saturday, one on which (for once, it seemed like), Kite had nothing to do. But, he also found out, both through a call from Yasu's mother and from a short article in the local news, that Yasuhiko had been hospitalized for falling into a coma the night before. Kite, of course, rushed to the hospital, only to return a short time later, downcast and distant.

"Well?" queried his sister.

"He's in a coma, apparently, but they wouldn't even let me see him," said Kite, voice soft and worried. "But… I guess it's better this way. I didn't really want to see him all weak, and… he wouldn't want that either…" To himself, he added: "But… what the hell happened to him?"

Whatever it was, though, Kite felt that the key was somewhere in The World. But, when he attempted to log in, he found that the servers were apparently down.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Some days later, on his computer, Kite once more tried to log back onto The World, but found that the servers were down. A message popped up, as he clicked the Log In button, saying "Thank You for Visiting The World. All services are currently unavailable due to maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience and ask for your patience."

He let out a soft sigh and, instead, went to the boards, figuring that at the least he could start by posting a message there about Yasuhiko. And so he did:

"Thread: Coma

Topic: Help

Author: Kite

My friend is in a coma after playing this game. He's hospitalized and still isn't out yet. But do these things actually happen? Does anyone know the reason? Anyone know someone else in the same state? How can I get him out of the coma? The people who made the game look here, too, right? Please give me some kind of information.

Thank you."

0 0 0 0 0 0

The very next day, as he was logging on after dinner, he received an email from CC corp apologizing for the Server Problems and announcing that for the time being, play would not be restricted to the first two servers only. He also had received a very unusual email indeed.

It was a garbled text from "Au$", whomever that was. Kite could only make out a few words and letters; otherwise, the message was completely illegible. Who sent this? I can't read it!

After a few moments of contemplating this, he sighed and shrugged, closing his email and opening The World. "New" flashed next to the Boards, signaling that new content had been posted since he had last checked, but Kite was disinclined to check it. So, he logged in, pulling his visor over his eyes and picking up his controller.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server: Root Town

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

Amid the traditional three golden rings, Kite appeared in Mac Anu before the chaos gate. He took a deep breath, gazing around him, once again unable to help marveling at the digital detail. However, his quiet observation was interrupted by a girl who stalked by, gazing around and muttering something under her breath. Kite watched her make a complete circuit of the Chaos Gate.

She was about his height, but was of a different class, being a Heavy Blade. Her sword was hidden, however, by the mysterious physics of the online world. She didn't have it drawn, and she wasn't in a field, so it remained hidden. As with many online players, she had attempted to choose a distinctive avatar, and it seemed that she had succeeded. With tanned skin, pink hair and wine-colored eyes, as well as two cream accent marks, one on either cheek, her face was quite pretty. As for the rest of her, it was attractive, as well, which was emphasized by her somewhat skimpy outfit.

On top, she had an impractical (from a defensive standpoint) dark armor top that had only one strap across one shoulder holding it up. It was as skimpy as a bikini, but it still cut off directly below her breasts, leaving her stomach bare, save for two cream 'lightening' stripes that served as accents. On her hips, she wore a white skirt with an oval of dark armor on either side, as well as one in the front and back. This came down mid thigh, if that, and left her legs exposed. Only they weren't exposed, for they were covered in dark tights, with a thorny vine pattern, which were tucked into armor boots that reached her knees. On her forearms, where the upper arms were bare, were gauntlets of similar style.

As she completed her circle of the Chaos Gate, she noticed his gaze and stomped up to him, eyes narrowed in a glare. She leant forward slightly and demanded, her voice snappish, "What? What is it? You got something to say?"

Kite was taken aback and hesitated before saying, "No…"

The girl let out a hmph, rolled her eyes and said, in a less hostile tone, "Oh, I get it now. You are a newbie, aren't you?" There was a pause in which she awaited an answer. When one was not forthcoming, she said, "I might have guessed. Well, are you or not? Come on now, don't be shy. You can tell me."

Kite said nothing.

"Listen," the girl suddenly snapped, her former snarky and 'in your face' tone returning. "In case you're not aware of it, you're being very rude. It's impolite to stare at someone like that. You have to understand: it's the same as the real world! Don't' you get it?"

Kite again said nothing.

Fed up, she threw her hands up in the air, turning and stomping off. Once she was a few steps away, she turned to him. "Last chance! What is up with you, anyway?"

Kite still was silent.

She sighed loudly. "Coem on, will you say something already?"

Kite lifted his eyebrows, but said nothing. And the girl left, disappearing into the city itself. After a few moments, he followed, not for the purpose of stalking, but for the purpose of gathering information and getting some potions and things. He intended to return to the place where.. well… it had happened.

But, before he went in, he paused and opened his menu to check his inventory. For some reason, in his Special Items category, there was an item called The Twilight. When he highlighted it to see what it was, all he got was garbled text. Wondering where he had received it and what the heck it was, Kite decided against attempting to use it, just in case it was something bad.

So, with it still in the back of his mind, he started off into the city proper. At first, he wandered a bit aimlessly, attempting to figure out its layout. True, he had a map in the upper right hand corner of his screen, but he was still a bit confused. There were, after all, a lot of people running around.

After a bit of wandering, he decided to just start by going to the NPCs and seeing what they did. So, he began with the Elf's Haven man. Putting his cursor on the man, Kite 'accessed' him.

The NPC said, "Welcome. You can store unused items here."

A box opened up in Kite's vision with three choice, one of which was Talk. He selected that one, and the NPC spoke again.

"Up to 99 different types of items can be stored. Up to 99 of each item can be stored. You can withdraw the stored items at any Elf's Haven."

Of course that was all very well and good, but not terribly useful. Kite left Elf's Haven and nearly ran over a fellow Twin Blade. She stopped and looked him over.

"Hello," said Kite. "Sorry…"

"Good evening, and that's all right," she said, amiably. "Don't worry about it. I'm Hayate. Who're you? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"I'm Kite; pleased to meet you."

"Indeed. Hmm.. Aren't Twin Blades weak? I should have picked Heavy Blade for strength…"

Kite, not really knowing if this was so, merely shrugged.

She looked down at his weapons, which were in their holders. "Hey, I've never seen that weapon before," she said, eyes suddenly alight with interest, which quickly faded. "Oh… wait. I have it. Hmm. Don't you wish you had something more powerful?"

Kite again shrugged. "I suppose."

"Wanna trade, then?"

"No. Thank you, though. I don't have any items worth trading right now. Um… I do have a question, though."

"Ok… Shoot."

"Have you noticed anything weird happening in The World lately? Like, any glitches or strange monsters?"

"Besides the apparent server failure..? Um.. No. Why?"

Kite shrugged, then half-lied: "No reason. I'm just curious. Seems like there've been some problems lately and I was wondering if they've been affecting a lot of people."

"Ah… Well… I'll be seeing you. I've got monsters to fight!"

"Bye."

And with that, Hayate ran off, leaving Kite to continue wandering again. He started towards the item shop and was nearly there when he was randomly accosted by a Long Arm wearing white trimmed with green. She seemed rather irritated about something and began just ranting at him, as he was apparently the first person she'd run into.

"Y'know what! There are some really annoying people out there! Like Yuckey! What is up with her? She totally bugs."

Kite blinked and nodded.

"And then there's this teacher at school we all hate," she continued, then added with an evil grin, "Let's see how he feels when someone throws an eraser at him. But, to add to it all, the upper servers are closed, and the items in this town are pretty lousy."

Abruptly, however, she seemed to actually notice Kite and glared at him. "What? What do you want? Stop following me around. I'm busy."

"I… Wasn't following you. Sorry… Um… It's just… Have you noticed any problems with this game lately?"

She seemed a bit taken aback by this question and paused mid insult. "Um.. no… not really, except the fact that the upper servers are closed. Why"

"Oh… nothing. I guess it's just me."

She snorted. "Whatever." And stalked off.

Kite blinked and went to the item shop. At the item shop, there was a white and blue armored Heavy Axeman. Every inch of his broad shouldered, tall form was covered in thick plate armor. And he was waiting his turn to buy items, for there was another in front of him. Kite got in line behind the Axeman, and he turned to Kite. Putting his cursor over the man, Kite saw that his name was Nekoski.

"He-ow," said Nekoski, brightly. "That's my new greeting! What do you think? It's half human and half cat. Pretty cool, huh?"

Kite lifted an eyebrow, a tad frightened by this overly-perky hulking person. "I… guess? Um…" He was about to ask Nekoski a question, but the player went right on talking.

"I just love cats. Don't you? They're so warm and fuzzy. I love their paws… Now, what was it you were asking?" But before Kite could reply, there was the somewhat distant sound of a meow and Nekoski said, "Oh wait! My cats are calling me… I gotta go…"

And, forsaking his place in line, he ran off to log out. Kite stared after him for a moment before approaching the Item Seller. The one who had been in front of Nekoski, a Long Arm wearing blue trimmed with yellow, was just finishing her exchange with the shopkeeper. She turned, flipping her long blond hair over her shoulder, and looked down her nose at Kite, who happened to have been looking at her.

"What? You're a long ways off before you can talk to me," she said, tone quite impatient.

"I'm… sorry?" Kite offered to… Cima, as his cursor said.

"Who do you think you're talking to! I'm sure you've heard of me… …Haven't you?"

Kite shook his head. "No… I'm sorry. Mm.. You wouldn't happen to know a player named Orca, would you?"

This seemed to only make Cima even more irate. With a heavy sigh and a scowl, she said, "Nothing but losers lately. Sheesh. Everyone's preoccupied with Balmung or Orca. The World doesn't revolve around them, all right?"

Kite winced. "Sorry." He seemed to be doing a lot of apologizing lately. And now for another half lie – it was easier than explaining everything to someone who didn't need to know and wouldn't care: "I've just heard the name around and was curious… that's all."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Are you still here? What's your problem? Don't you get it!"

"Sor–"

"If you get it, then scram, n00b."

Kite backed away from her and walked hurriedly around and past her to the Item Shop. The NPC was considerably friendlier.

"Be prepared! We've got many types of Medicine for your healing needs!"

When Kite selected talk, the man said, "It's common sense to take along plenty of healing medicine. If you have SP recovery medicine, you'll never have to worry about overusing your skills!"

Kite then proceeded to purchase a few Sprite Ocarinas, some more Fortune Wires and a few extra healing potions, as well as sell the Yellow Candy and Grunt Doll he had received from the dungeon. Turning away from the Item Shop when done, he came face to face with a green robed wavemaster with yellow designs along his robe and a grey vest. He wore a hat over his messy brown hair. The cursor said his username was Fool.

"Um… Hello," said Kite, a little unnerved by the fact that Fool had been standing right behind him.

Fool gave him a calculating look. "Do you want to trade? I'll trade a Spiritual Book for twenty-five Holy Sap. Or an Air Bracer for ten."

"I'm sorry," said Kite. "I don't have any Holy Sap."

"That's too bad. Oh well. If you ever get some, please trade with me. I'm collecting it. Good bye."

Kite wondered if all people in The World were this… interesting. But then he started towards the Weapon Shop. There, there was a grey robed wavemaster with grey hair and a grey and brown hat talking to the shopkeeper. After a moment, the wavemaster turned and beheld Kite.

"Yo! How are you?" According to the cursor, this was Alue.

"Fine, thank you. And you?"

"Doin' good, see."

Kite lifted an eyebrow.

"Add 'see' to the end of your sentences and you can talk like me, see?"

"I see… see. Heh."

"Tch. Yo, if you got any questsion, just ask me. I may not seem like it, but I'm an idol in The World, see?"

"Really? Well… Have you –"

Alue interrupted him. "Hey, if I keep talking to you, my fans are gonna get rowdy, see. The rule is three minutes per person. I'll make sure you have some time to talk to me in the future. Make an appt. with my secretary." And with that, the wavemaster brushed passed Kite, leavning the twin blade a bit bewildered.

Shaking his head, he approached the Weapon Shop.

"Welcome. This is the Weapon Shop." Selection of Talk. "You can use specially skills by equipping weapons and armor. When you buy equipment pay attention to the skills as well as the parameters."

Kite decided not to buy any equipment until he grew more used to the battle system and whatnot, so he headed for the Magic Shop. At the Magic Shop, once more, he came just behind another person seeking to use it. When the white robed wavemaster was done, she sighed and turned to go, the golden trip of her outfit glittering in the bright digital sunlight.

"Man… Wish I could get good items… Oh… hello.. ? Hey! There's something your shoulder!"

"What?"

"Oh, wait… Sorry. That's just your pack."

"Ok… Hey, you haven't seen any eerie and overly powerful monsters or female ghosts around The World lately, have you?

Sachiko, as her name apparently was, said, "What? No… I haven't seen any kind of powerful warrior ghosts. Have you? I bet it would get you good items… I never have any luck with those. Seems to tbe the same with areas."

"I guess that's just the way things go."

"Yeah. Hey! Guess what. Something eerie happened to me today. Fifty black cats appeared before me and just stared. What do you think?"

"That is weird."

"Ah well.. Bye."

And with that Sachiko was off. Was everyone really this chatty with complete strangers? It was a bit unnerving. But Kite supposed, with your real self hidden, perhaps it was easier to be friendly or talkative. Or maybe today was just Everyone be Chatty day.

The Magic Shop Man said, "Welcome! Can I interest you in some magic scrolls?" Talk. "Scrolls are one-time use only, but it won't waste SP! It's also good to buy skills you don't have."

At this juncture, Kite decided to just head back, save his game and then head to that field. Nearing the Recorder's, however, he overheard random snatches of conversation, including one passed comment from a Mutsuki, running thus: "I'm a pro when it comes to cats. I hope there's a bunch of 'em in The World." He also heard a comment about a cat-player – a player who looked like a purple cat. This left Kite to wonder what the hell was up with all these people obsessed with cats.

At the Recorder, the NPC said, "I can save your data. Don't forget to stop by often during your adventure."

And Kite saved his game. Then, he returned to the Chaos Gate and was just about to open its menu and enter his keyword when…

"Wait a sec!" called the Heavy Blade girl from before.

Kite turned to look at her.

"Yeah, you. I uh… I know some interesting keywords," she said. "If you go with me, I'll tell you what they are. Do you want to know?"

Kite debated for a moment – this certainly sounded suspicious – but then said, "Yes… by all means."

"Right on!" she sounded cheerful, now. "That's the spirit! Spoken like a true newbie."

At this moment, Kite received BlackRose's member address.

"The keywords are: delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground."

Kite nodded. "Ok."

He turned to the Chaos Gat and immediately exclaimed, "What are you doing? You have to add me to your party!"

"I know," said Kite even as he selected her username (the only username besides Orca's) on his list. "I just invited you."

"Oh. Well you aren't fast enough. Let's go."

"Mm…" Kite accessed the Chaos Gate and entered the keywords. The screen telling him about the field showed that it was a level six and had an element of water.

And with that, they warped away.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server

Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground

0 0 0 0 0 0

They appeared at the edge of a sheered off bridge on an elevated island in the dead center of a huge lake. The island was nothing but stone brick forming a broad, austere walkway to an enormous gothic cathedral. The detail was amazing. The sky was a kind of grey twilight; it could have been dawn or dusk, and it was impossible to tell, for the sun, partially hidden behind clouds, remained fixed in the sky. Strangely, there was no back ground music, or if there was, it was very faint.

"Woah," breathed Blackrose, her ridiculously huge sword now drawn and held at her side. "This place is…"

"Hmm?"

"Nevermind. Let's go." A pause. "Well, are you going to escort me like a proper gentleman?"

Kite sighed and they started down the walkway. After a moment or three of the silence, Kite said, "Hey…"

Blackrose practically jumped in the air. "Ahhhhhhh!" she screamed. "Ahhhhhh! Ah… Thought I was gonna die of a heart attack…"

"Hn."

"Wha – what? Don't freak me out like that! It's rude! Really rude!"

"Sorry…"

The pair continued, walking to the Cathedral. Their feet made the only noise, which seemed loud in the stillness. However, as they reached the steps leading up to the cathedral doors (one of which was adjar), a faint music could be heard, an melancholy, eerie tune sung by an invisible choir. It grew louder as they drew nearer.

The pair entered through the slightly open door, pushing it a bit wider so they could enter. The interior of the cathedral was just as detailed as the outside, and just as strange. There were two main rows of pews facing the front, where there was a large stone statue of a mournful girl, bound with several chains, which were hooked to the wall. There were four pendulums in the room, one hanging a few feet from each of the cardinal walls. And they ticked back and forth unceasingly, regularly and silently. The floor was of highly polished marble, reflecting the room and the two players almost as nicely as mirror. The vaulted ceiling stretched high above them.

Suddenly, a scraping noise assaulted their ears as they gazed about in awe. There was another scraping grunt and quite suddenly a Goblin dropped down in front of them. Kite crouched, his weapons at the ready.

"Ah! What is that thing?" demanded Blackrose as Kite ran forward and began to attack. "Stay back!"

Kite fought the Goblin pretty well, though he got hit once or twice. Blackrose held her sword in front of her and close, shifting nervously and eyeing the goblin fearfully. "Ah.. Oh no," she moaned, dancing back and forth on her feet.

Kite delivered the deathblow, and laughing nervously, she said, "So that' sit? Pretty weak, huh?" And then sighed, putting her weapons away.

Kite looked around to make sure there were no more monsters, then closed his eyes a moment and took a deep breath as Blackrose said, "What do you know. You didn't even need my help at all, did you?"

Kite shrugged and shook his head a bit before putting his weapons away. He then ran down the aisle to the statue, stopping several feet from the railing, keeping any players from actually reaching it. (One wasn't allowed to climb them for one reason or another) Blackrose ran after and came to a stop, gazing up at the statue. Kite glanced at her.

"The statue," she murmured. "It looks so… so sad."

Kite agreed with her and turned his eyes back to the statue. It was so achingly familiar, that face. However, it took him a few minutes to figure out why. It was that girl! That pale girl in white. That statue was of her. It even had the same, mourning, pleading eyes.

Slowly, he walked up to the railing and put his arms against it, peering at the inscription on the pedestal, hoping it might give some clue. "Skeith," he read. "Innis. Magus. I can't read anything else. The inscription is faded.

Blackrose fiddled with her hands. "By the way," she began, shifting and gazing at the ground, clasping an arm in a hand behind her back.

"Hmm?" Kite kept his eyes on the statue, contemplating.

"I guess you can tell I'm a newbie, too."

Kite looked over his shoulder at her, then looked forward again. "Hmm… Yeah."

"It must be pretty obvious by the way I acted back there." She paused "But you still hung out with me." Another pause. "You know what? You're nicer than I thought."

Kite shifted a bit self consciously.

"You see… I'm… I'm trying to find –"

Blackrose broke off as a loud thud resounded through the chamber. The pair of the spun around to see that the doors had been flung open, and a winged blademaster was running down the aisle. He had white hair held back with a black band about his forehead overhanging light blue green eyes in a pale handsome face. On his body, he had silver armor, save on his arms, which were wrapped with thin black strips of leather. Off of those arms hung many pearly white feathers. And from his back protruded the aforementioned wings. They were graceful, these wings, and quite beautiful, covered as they were in the brilliant white feathers.

The blademaster had his sword drawn, and his gaze was intense, expression serious. "Hey!" he called to them. "What are you doing?"

Something felt wrong. Something about the very air of the room had changed, and it had changed before the man had even arrived, but Kite and Blackrose only now began to noticed it. Still, Blackrose couldn't help but shout back:

"What? What about you, huh?"

"No time to explain," called the man, who was too far away to target. "It's too dangerous here."

"What?" Blackrose now sounded confused.

"I'm telling you to get out," insisted the blademaster.

But apparently his warnings were too late, for suddenly, static rippled through their visions. All the colors abruptly turned negative and an iridescent ripple appeared in the ceiling. A monster fell out of it; a Headless Hunter. With the screens still slightly static-y for a moment after, the colors returned to normal. Blackrose and Kite stared at it.

"Leave here at once!" ordered the blademaster. "Ha!" he cried as he leapt up into the air, poised to attack the creature.

After a moment of hanging in the air, he slammed down with his sword, slicing deeply across the creature's shoulder and landing in a crouch near to Blackrose and Kite. The monster staggered and slumped, darkening in color as if it were about to turn grey and die. However, this did not happen. As Balmung (he was near enough to be targeted, and Balmung was apparently his name) got to his feet and turned to face it, their screens became static-y again as the colors once more reversed, for a slightly longer stretch as strange glowy patches of corrupted data mottled the creature's skin. When the colors returned to normal, they glowed a sickly poisonous green. The wound on the monster had healed and it stood up with a roar.

Balmung's eyes widened in surprise. "This one as well…"

Kite continued to stare, a painful flashback of a certain other time when the screen had become static laden and colors had become negative flickering in bits and pieces in his mind.

Blackrose, meanwhile, freaked out. "But how?" she cried. "Tell me what' going on here. That thing should have been.. it should have been dead. Why is it glowing like that? It's so freaky! Is this for real?"

Balmung explained, tensely, yet with a bit of worried wonder, "It's a bug from a computer virus. The virus is rewriting the data. It has a hit point that's… infinite." He, too, stared up at the monstrosity.

Blackrose breathed, "This is the one…"

Balmung seemed to come back to himself, for he glanced at the pair and said, "You must escape while I buy some time."

Blackrose ignored him. "Because of this thing," she hissed, drawing her blade and charging at the beast.

"No!" cried Balmung, starting after her. "Leave it be, or you'll be killed!"

Kite took a step or two after them, but stopped, shuddering as he thought of the Data Draining of Orca. Suddenly, he heard, as if from the statue, the voice of the girl.

"The book," she whispered. "Open the book."

"The book?"

"The power it holds can bring forth either salvation or destruction at the whim of the user."

Suddenly Kite realized that The Twilight he had earlier seen in his inventory must be the book to which she referred. He didn't waste time trying to figure out how he'd obtained it and instead activated it. The book, just as she had given it to Orca, appeared in his hands, only this time it opened. Kite barely noticed that his perception had changed from the cathedral to a world of pure white noise. The book flickered with static electricity and random bits of raw data. Compelled by some strange reason, he threw it, and it flew several feet before stopping, pages turned towards him.

His arm, which had been held out from his follow through in throwing, was jerked forward a little as a white beam from the book suddenly shot out and connected with that wrist. Kite cried out in pain and lifted his left hand up as if to protect himself. The book's pages turned rapidly, data from it floating out and digging into his wrist and into him. Though one was not supposed to be able to feel anything in The World, Kite felt his data, the essence of his character be torn and completely rewritten by this book. It was not a pleasant sensation, and he writhed with it.

Even his outward appearance changed, though only in main color. His outfit changed from green to red, and instead of being unmarked, strange yellow lines appeared on his pants and an odd symbol appeared on his cap, also in yellow. Then, his wrist was jerked forward again, and he cried out, louder, for what happened next hurt quite a good deal more.

An icy burning pain engulfed his wrist and spiked briefly through the rest of his body as a light blue green bracelet – frighteningly like the one that had appeared on the red wand monster's wrist – materialized around his wrist. The monster snarled in frustration as a larger ring appeared around the initial bit of bracelet, several prongs extending from it. And from the tips of these prongs came the ribbons of data and colored light which spiraled towards the data bugged monster.

The monster screamed with its digital pain, and at the same time, Kite screamed, pain wracking through his own body; he could feel, during this brief moment of being connected to the monster, part of the same thing that corrupted its data entering his own… Entering him. The monster disappeared for a micro-second, part of its data shed into fragments of these beams, and then reappeared minus the green glowing raw data. The beams retracted into Kite's bracelet, which folded upon itself and vanished, leaving him with a Virus Core M.

Kite fell to his knees, panting and shuddering uncontrollably. He stared at nothing whatsoever for a moment before, as he staggered to his feet, staring at his wrist. It didn't occur to him at this moment that he shouldn't have been able to feel the marble beneath his feet.

"That was like the…" he whispered, the bracelet flickering once before completely vanishing, though Kite could still feel its presence. He knew it was still there. "Like the time when Orca…"

Blackrose, meanwhile, had stopped, staring wide eyed at the monster's end of being data drained. Balmung, too, had halted for a moment, staring between the monster and Kite, for he had both seen this and heard Kite's cries. He was rather shocked, but after a moment or two, he turned back to the monster and killed it. This time, it stayed dead.

Blackrose let out a heavy sigh and collapsed to her knees, sheathing her sword. She stared at where the monster had been, her breath still shallow and rapid, her pulse still racing.

Balmung stood up and spoke, his voice hard. "That skill…Now, I understand. You are the same as the virus. To think that I was saved by" – he turned towards Kite – "Someone like you."

"No!" said Kite, looking up from his wrist to Balmung. "That's not… I don't even know what's –"

"Do not lie to me!" snapped Balmung, any and all patience gone. "Recently, many places in The World have been damaged by a virus. Those who willfully spread this virus and destroy this world for their own amusement," he continued, voice low with the passion he felt about this subject. "They…. They shall receive no mercy."

Kite shook his head, saying, a bit frantically, though firmly, "No! That's not me! I –"

Balmung interrupted. "I did not expect to find the one responsible so soon." He stepped forward, lifting his sword and pointing at Kite in challenge. "Draw!" he demanded. "Draw your sword now!"

"I won't!" said Kite. "There's no reason to do that!"

"There is for me."

Kite clenched his fists at his side. "No," he stammered, still very shaken from the ordeal of Data Draining and The Book. "I don't wanna fight. I just… I…"

Blackrose, at this point, had had enough. She stood up, fists clenched and eyes burning with anger and frustration. "What is the matter with you!" she demanded, stomping up to Balmung and jabbing her finger at him as she leaned up into his face. "That's hardly the way to talk to someone who just saved your life!"

Kite followed her a few paces up to Balmung, but stopped, still a step or two behind.

"Mm?" Balmung regarded Blackrose with a curious expression. "Hmm…" He sheathed his sword and then turned to go. "I still do not trust you," he said, looking over his shoulder. "I just require the time to think this through. But, if I find out that you are indeed in with them… I will kill you."

Balmung then stormed from the cathedral, a glower upon his features. A few steps out the door, a woman's vaguely amused voice addressed him.

"That was rather childish for Balmung of the Azure Sky, the Descendent of Fianna," said the voice.

Balmung halted, glancing around and then turning a little and looking up at the woman in white, who was perched on the cathedral roof. His expression deepened in its displeasure. "I do not speak with hackers," he said, crossing his arms briefly before turning and leaving again.

The woman laughed and bowed, disappearing amid three golden rings. As a final word, she said to Balmung, "That boy. He's a friend of your partner."

This caused Balmung to pause. Lifting his eyebrows, he murmured, "Orca…?"

Meanwhile, back in the cathedral, Kite had informed Blackrose of the events that had landed him in this position, as well as how he had suddenly wound up crimson clothed and with the ability to data drain things.

"I thought he would end up like Orca," Kite was saying. "And… and I panicked. That's when I heard her voice. It was the voice of the girl who gave the book to Orca."

"I see," said Blackrose, slowly. "But what are you going to do if the Data Bug shows up again? That power put your friend – um… Sorry."

"I don't even know… what this power is. Or what she wanted Orca to do," he said, helplessly. "And what am I supposed to do with this power? All I wanna do is help Orca…"

It wasn't long before they returned to Mac Anu. But, by that time, if Balmung had lingered at all in the Root Town, he was gone. They stood before the Chaos Gate for a moment in silence before Blackrose spoke.

"Well, I've gotta go. Today was… um… I don't know what to say, but… Good night."

"Good night, Blackrose," said Kite just before she disappeared.

He stood for a few moments, thinking, and it was now that it suddenly occurred to him that he could feel the cobblestones beneath his feet. Unnerved, he, too, logged out, praying that it was just his imagination. Really, you weren't supposed to be able to feel a thing in The World! And yet, already he'd felt pain and more. Luckily his dad was on a business trip, and his sister and mother had gone out, else they'd all be in here, wondering what the hell had happened when he had earlier been shouting and screaming. As it was, he hoped that the neighbors hadn't been paying attention.

But, he wasn't trapped in The World or anything, and when he logged out, he set his sweat soaked controller aside and pulled out his face-mounted display with trembling fingers. He stared at the screen for a long moment before selecting the Boards. The first thing he did there was to check out the thread he had created. Opening it, he was dumbfounded to see that everything he'd posted was deleted.

_Deleted… But… Why?_

* * *

Author's Notes: 

And there you are. Chapter two. It was longer than the first chapter. Hope you don't mind.

And as for the random non main characters Kite talked to, yes I actually wrote down what they said when you talked to them, then extrapolated conversations from there. And y'know what? I did all the work for this chapter today, too. Yup. It took a few hours to play through that much of the game and record down all the conversations and talk to some of the people wandering around and what not. Oy vey. And then another almost four hours to write this sucker.

So… that's seven or eight hours of my life devoted to you people! You'd better be grateful. P

Anyway, since I was only able to reply to two of you via review replies, and with the rest of you not leaving me any email addresses, here's your review replies here.

Blader-Kun: Heh. That's part of why I'm writing it. But, why didn't you finish the games? I loved them to death, and, except for some of the frustrating bits of having to run off and scrounge up Virus Cores, as well as some of the tedious dungeon delving, I couldn't really stop playing. Well, until the very end… after which I was sad, because except for killing off the last few Goblins and raising all the type of Grunties and collecting all the items (Which I didn't care to do), there was nothing else to do. ;.; Well, ok so you could spend a bunch of time and items on raising the affection levels of your new characters and stuff and then emailing them. Heh. Sorreh… But, you should try to finish them! The fourth game especially is well worth seeing.

Rayne: You do? Cool. Um.. Should I just go ahead and PM Uber Flare with review replies for you, then? And heh… In the games, Kite doesn't really say much… and I figured that, quiet and more or less polite though he is, that can't be all of his personality. –cackles and glomps Kite- And thanks! Arsenic ish fun. –shifty eyes- Arsenic and Old Lace is funny, too. Yup. And I think I've heard that song. There's also a song by They Might Be Giants that's all about Mammals. And another one about the Sun. Oh the sun is a mass of incandescent gas / a gigantic nuclear furnace… -grins-

Saskie: Uh… thanks? A little more substance to your review would be lovely, but I guess simplicity works.

Winks: Thanks. I'm glad that you like my writing and my description. I'll keep up dating, slowly but surely, as long as I don't have writer's block and as long as I do have time, a working PS2, working memory card, working games, and a working computer with internet.

Thanks to everyone who read this but didn't review… -pointed glare at a lot of people- There are plenty of you, I'm sure… -pokes hit count- I mean, with 119 hits on the prologue and 46 on the first chapter, I'm fairly certain that more than seven people have read it.

OH! A request to any and all:

I'm making this rather early, but at least I'm giving you plenty of time to reply.

Will someone who has a copy of the extra episode of SIGN in which Kite & co meet Tsukasa & co for a bit of a party PLEASE email me a script of it? Since I don't know where I can download the extra episode, and since my evil boxed set of the SIGN episodes came with every extra episode except that and GIFT (which was on the fourth Liminality disk anyway), I'd be much obliged if I could have a script form of it. Granted, that won't even enter into this story until the epilogue, but I would like to have it on hand nonetheless. Please? I don't want a summary, because I know what happens in it…

I want a script. As in what each character says and does almost exactly. What emotions are on their faces and whatnot.

I know that's probably a lot to ask, because it takes a while to make a script from such things ( believe me, it does, even if you are a very fast typer. You still have to stop and go back, or replay things several times to get the whole thing, unless you have subtitles or something and can pause it). But I'd be eternally grateful!

My email address is linked on my profile. And if you have any questions about what you want in my script or wish to send me a script for it, you can email me there. Ok?

Thanks!

Summary of Chapter 3:

Uh… I dunno. I haven't thought about it yet. XD In lieu of a summary, I shall give you a small snippit preview of the script notes I have taken down for part of it.

(Two players are standing near the Chaos Gate, chatting… Kite overhears)

Edajima: (white and red armored heavy axe guy) I saw a strange character in the alley. It looked like a cat. :-) Is it possible to edit like that?

Sieg: (A silver and blue armored blade master) A cat? Oh yeah, I saw it too. I prefer bunny girls, though.

( the two leave and Kite decides to check it out.. for some reason, he can still feel the cobblestones, but chooses to ignore it.)

Kite; -goes into alley-

Mia and Elk: -are coming out

Elk: Hey! I found a great area that's full of aromatic grass. Wanna go?

Mia: Yeah, sure!

Elk: Great! Let's get ready, then!

Mia: - ears and tail twitch- is suddenly distracted, as if smelling something… runs off-

Elk: Uh, Mia? –follows-

Mia: -runs up to Kite- Excuse me!

Kite: -stops and points to himself-

Mia: You, yes you! –draws up to Kite, who is a bit bewildered and stares curiously at the purple cat player and stops- -stares curiously at his right wrist-

Mia: -points- That's a unique bracelet. –Elk skids to stop next to them, a tad confused-

Hehe… And that's how I take notes off of the game. Actually, in order to take notes of the Mia Elk scene, I loaded another game in which I'd already beaten Infection and unlocked all the videos, and then just kept watching the scene over and over, recording as much of the conversation and actions as I could. Bwah.

Until next time,

Sargent Snarky


	4. Chapter III

.**hack/The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

_Genre_: General

_Rating_: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

_Summary_: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

Spoilers: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

Note: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

I do hope you will permit me this drivel. In a way, this will probably serve as notes for me for other .hack stories in that it is a basis, more or less, of how I tend to picture things in the games.

* * *

Chapter III

The next evening (after dinner, as he rarely had more than a few minutes of breathing time beforehand, if not because of schoolwork and soccer, then because of schoolwork and cram school, which he detested), when Kite flicked on his computer from sleep mode, he saw that he had new mail. So, without further ado, he opened it and was surprised by an email from Blackrose and another email from someone named Helba, whoever that was. First, he opened the one from Blackrose.

"From: BlackRose

Subject: I believe you

I don't really understand it, but I will believe you. I'm actually really busy (aren't we all? Kite muttered to himself), but I'll help you when I have time, so call me up."

Kite replied with a simple message:

"Subject: Thanks

Thank you. It's good to know. See you in The World, then."

And then he went on to read the other message.

"From: Helba (There was a picture of an odd woman wearing white with a tall hat, blonde hair and a high collar, as well as a red and gold visor covering her eyes, rather like Jordi from the Next Generation of Star Trek. Kite didn't recognize her.)

(A/N: Sorry for those of you who aren't Trek-ies… Um… I watch it when I can, 'cause I rather like Star Trek. And anyway, Helba's eye visor does look a lot like Jordi's. Only it doesn't have LEDs blinking across it.)

Subject: Data Drain

I've seen your powers. You can rewrite the monster's data by performing Data Drain following a Protect Break.

If you use it wisely, it will be very valuable in the future. You will need its powers. However, you must beware, for with each drain, you draw some of the virus within you. Indeed, you cannot avoid being contaminated with that virus as long as you continue to posses and wield it.

You can check the spread of the virus within you by a gauge in the Skill Selection Menu. When the spread is at 100, there may be a lethal effect on your character as well as potentially detrimental effects upon yourself, so be aware of the spread of viral infection.

However, if you go without employing the skill for a long time, or defeat monsters without using it, the spread will decrease little by little, so do not let it get above 100.

And another warning: You are always being watched. Though you may not wish it, you will be the eye of the storm in The World. That is the fate of the one who bears the bracelet.

Prepare yourself."

'She knows about my bracelet…Who is she?' Kite wondered this and more, staring at the email and rereading it several times as he took in the information given him.

After a long several minutes, without replying, he closed down email and opened The World. There was only one new post on The Board, and it was an advertisement posted by a Goblin, of all things, for a battle. Apparently an event. Kite took note of the key words given just in case. And then, he logged into The World.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server: Root Town

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

As Kite warped in, two players were standing at the Chaos Gate, chatting. Kite would have ignored them, except what he heard caught his interest.

The first – a white and red armored Heavy Axeman who, according to Kite's cursor, was named Edajima – said, "I saw a strange character in the alley. It looked like a cat. :-) Is it possible to edit like that?" (A/N: You can type in smiley faces when playing The World, so if a character types in a smiley face in the game, I reproduce it here.)

The other player – a silver and blue armored blade master named Sieg – replied, "A cat? Oh yeah, I saw it, too. I prefer bunny girls, though."

They shared a laugh and then departed amid the golden hoops. Kite stood thinking for a moment or two, then decided to go and see this cat player for himself. He was purposefully ignoring the fact (or perhaps hadn't registered it yet) that he could still feel the cobblestones beneath his feet, which should have been utterly impossible, but there it was.

However, as he ambled along down the main street, that he could feel slowly dawned on him, along with the realization that he could even smell a few things. The smell of the canals (certainly a cleaner canal aroma than any in the real world) and the fragrance of a player's perfume as she passed by mingled in his nostrils. And he stopped, wide eyed. Pulse increasing a bit, he took a couple deep breaths, which were tinged with scents, in an effort to calm himself.

Then Kite told himself it was nothing to worry about. If he could feel or detect some things that normal players probably couldn't, then it wasn't anything to get excited over. It wasn't harming him and, in fact, would probably enhance whatever he was doing here, so he might as well just accept it. But, that didn't stop him from worrying a bit as he once more began his ramble through the Water City of Mac Anu.

So preoccupied with it, he didn't realize when he'd turned down a side alley until he reached the edge and nearly fell into the canal. Catching himself and wondering whether he would have felt wet, should he have fallen in (which was unlikely given the game parameters generally forbade swimming), Kite sighed and turned the corner, just following the side street to see where it would go.

Just rounding the corner at the other end of this stretch was another pair of players, whom Kite didn't see right away as he was looking towards the ground. One was a wavemaster wearing robes that were predominantly blue, though the loose sleeves were white. His hat was also blue and his hair was a greenish teal, though his eyes were blood red. On either cheek he had a blue green "F" of sorts, and he carried a staff wrought like an ornate shepherd's crook. A crimson ribbon had been tied off just below that crook and it dangled long and heavily down, though the wavemaster kept it somewhat wrapped up to avoid dragging. The pole of the staff was blue, but the end and the crook were a light tannish color, and the crook had red zigzag stripes around it. In the midst of the crook floated a deep red orb that matched the wavemaster's eyes.

His companion was the cat player whom Sieg and Edajima had been talking of, and she was an interesting character indeed. She was slim and moved with a hip swaying, effortless grace, accompanied by an also swaying tail. Her fur was purple, save for her muzzle, inside of her ears and belly, which were white. Her ears were long, pointed and tall, almost like a rabbit's, though too triangular for that. Her eyes were cat's eyes, of course, but they were yellow and intelligent, large and mirror-like in that they showed nothing and reflected everything. On her body, she had a green and white body suit that was also armor in spots. However, there was a gap on her thighs and tummy, and the part covering her feet and serving as her shoes was purple and white. On her arms and hands were gloves reaching to her elbow, but no farther. She was most likely a blademaster.

The two walked along, apparently good friends, and the wavemaster was chatting amiably to his friend. "Hey! I found a great area that's full of aromatic grass. Wanna go?" he asked with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, sure!" said the cat player, less enthused, but this was in part because she had quite suddenly become distracted by… something. She could feel it. She could smell it. But she wasn't quite sure what it was. Still it had a familiar flavor. And so, her ears perked up and her tail twitched as she leant forward, eyes darting around, seeking this fascinating thing.

As the wavemaster said, "Great! Let's get ready then," she started off, running down the alley to Kite.

The wavemaster, confused by this sudden change, stared after her a moment. "Uh, Mia?" he queried as he ran after her.

From several feet away, Mia called, "Excuse me!"

Kite stopped, looked up, saw her coming and gestured to himself, wondering if he was really the intended target.

"You, yes you," said Mia as she stopped just in front of him. She leant forward, still all perked with curiosity, and stared at his right wrist. She then pointed. "That's a unique bracelet. Can I take a look?"

Then, before Kite could offer any sort of reply, she snatched his hand and held the arm up to eye level as she gazed at this bracelet, which was invisible to all other eyes. The wavemaster, meanwhile, skidded to a stop beside them and nearly lost his balance. He stared at Kite's wrist, too, although he was rather confused by all of this.

Kite also did a bit of staring, but it was at Mia for a moment, his eyes wide with surprise. Although he could feel the warmth of her hand, he ignored it, instead concentrating on the more pressing issue. "Can you see it?" he asked, as if to make sure she really could see it when he couldn't.

"Yes of course," she replied, and he glanced at it. "Do you mean to say that you can't see this nice bracelet?"

Kite shook his head, and the wavemaster stared harder, glancing between Mia and Kite.

"Even if you can't see it, as long gas you know it's there, it's the same thing as seeing it, right?" said Mia. She then poked the bracelet, and it became briefly visible, at least to Kite, as if in reaction to the touch. It also brought a slight shock, as if Kite had been zapped with a bit of static electricity.

"Bracelet?" queried the wavemaster, whom Kite saw to be named Elk. He tilted his head to one side. "Hey, what are you talking about? I can't see any bracelet, Mia."

But the cat player ignored him. Instead, she nodded to Kite and brushed around him, back to her usual slow, hip-sway walk. Her voice containing a hint of a purr, she looked sideways at him. "Well, thanks a lot for letting me look at your bracelet. I have a feeling we'll meet again… some how. Well… See you around."

Elk took a few steps after her, then stopped, looking back at Kite with a thoughtful, calculating expression. Then, he turned and ran after Mia, calling, "Hey Mia, what about the aromatic grass?"

Kite stared after them, then looked down at his wrist with a sigh.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Upon returning to the Chaos Gate, after some more wandering, contemplating the events of the previous day, as well as a few interesting encounters with fellow players, Kite stood and stared into the twirling portal for several minutes. Where was he to go? He sent a Flash Mail to Blackrose, but she wasn't on. And he decided that his level was probably entirely too low to take on the goblin event.

Reluctantly, however, he eventually settled upon returning to Bursting Passed Over Aqua Fields. At least that way he could check and see if any changes had occurred to the field. He might find a clue. And so away he warped.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta, Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field

0 0 0 0 0 0

Appearing in the middle of the tranquil field, Kite at first thought nothing was wrong (apart from his ability to feel the breeze and smell the fresh air). But then it occurred to him, as he looked around, that there were no magic portals. There were no monsters on this top field. However, the blue Spring of Myst icon still flickered upon the map, so Kite determined that, as long as he was here, he would visit it.

Coming up to the pool, he stopped at its edge and looked down into it. It was nothing more than a round spring that steamed and shimmered and bubbled a little. Nothing more, save perhaps a faint glow. His cursor targeted it, so he selected the spring and an option to throw a piece of equipment was given him. So, Kite threw his Amateur Blades in.

Immediately, causing Kite to start and take a step backwards, there was a flash on the water and a large blue gelatinous drop creature popped out. It had wide eyes and a clownish smile. Kite immediately disliked it, and this distaste only grew when it began to speak.

In a very annoying, almost condescending and very fake (as if he were a parody car salesman) voice, the tear drop (who was apparently a Monsieur Lv. 1) said, "Did you lose a Golden Axe? Or was it a Silver axe?"

Kite was given the choice of either axe or the selection of neither. Following what he'd read of in the board, he selected 'neither'. The infuriatingly slow speaking Monsieur replied, "What? Neither one? Hmm… Let's see… Then is this it? Till Next Time! Good bye!"

After it bequeathed a new item to Kite, it zipped straight upwards into the heavens, leaving a brief wake of glittering water droplets. Kite checked out his weapon's new stats and saw them to be an improvement, luckily. He now had a lovely set of Phantom B lades, which were better than his Steel Blades, so he changed equipment.

Only now did he head into the dungeon. First, down the steps, and then past the two treasure chests Orca had used in his tutorial and into the first room, the T intersection. Kite took every step warily, at the same time unconsciously listening for any change in the background music. But, there was no need, for nothing happened, at least not in this room. No pale girl. No tall, dark thing wielding a red wand. No green patched and sickly glowing monster. Indeed, there was nothing.

At the end of the room, Kite turned right, deciding he might as well check every room. And, once more, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The room was just as it had been when he and Orca had entered it that fateful day. Letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, Kite continued on. And, crossing to the room on the left, Kite wondered if the entire dungeon would be normal, or if, like the lack of portals on the surface, there would be random glitches.

Entering that room, he was surprised, therefore, to find that the portal was there, as it ought to have been. And out of it popped two Deadly Moths. They looked as they were named, for they were large moths with a skull pattern on each wing, white against the mottled charcoal of the rest of the wing. They fluttered for a moment as the remnants of the portal faded, then chittered and flapped forward. Kite met them in the attack.

These turned out to be more difficult than the Goblins that had earlier populated the dungeon, for not only did they have higher hit points, but they also had stronger and more accurate attacks. And this, of course, led to them hitting Kite. Which hurt, despite the hits coming from a stingerless insect.

And this led to Kite crying out in pain and alarm. "What the hell?" He grit his teeth against the pain, however, and fought back, though he wondered aloud, "Why? Why does it hurt? It's not supposed to…"

But, the Deadly Moths did not answer. Instead, they kept up the attack, forcing Kite to grin and bear it, so to speak. Well, until he saw a blue polygonal orb appear around one of the moths and shatter. Then, as the monster recoiled, a small box appeared in Kite's vision, attached to the monster and proclaiming Data Drain OK. Kite hesitated, and then, reluctantly, but deciding it was better to try it out now rather than later, he commenced a Data Drain.

First, he stepped back and somehow – he wasn't quite sure how; he just knew it instinctively – activated the bracelet, causing it to materialize about his wrist, glowing brightly, pulsing as it sought to expand and be put to use. The words Data Drain fell from Kite's lips as he lifted his arm, holding the bracelet out towards the Deadly Moth, which remained in place, its insect eyes glaring malevolently at Kite.

This second Data Draining was different from the first, and yet all too similar. Like before, he was jerked forward a bit, and his entire wrist ached with a stabbing pain. And like before, as the bracelet opened up and the ribbons of light and data went streaming towards the moth, he felt some of his own energy be drawn directly from his body, which also was quite painful. But, unlike before, the feeling of something else being drawn into himself was not so strong. Indeed, it was almost nonexistent. Still, that didn't make the sensation any less miserable.

When the draining was complete, all that remained, where the monster's data had been reconfigured, was a Worm, a level one critter with the lowest stats imaginable. The rest of the data had been rewritten, by the bracelet, into an item. And that item was an Earth Sword. It sat in Kite's inventory.

After the bracelet faded, and Kite's arm was allowed to drop, at which point he drew his blades again, he stood there, breathing hard and staring for a moment, before a chitter from the remaining Deadly Moth brought his attention back to the matter at hand. He then proceeded to finish the battle, choosing not to data drain the second Deadly Moth. The Worm had run to the farthest corner of the room, but Kite chased it down easily enough and killed it in one blow.

Following this battle, Kite used a Health Drink to replenish his hit points and moved on to the lower floor. However, he did this slower, and more hesitatingly than before. Being able to feel things like the ground and the breeze was one thing. Being able to feel every blow from an enemy monster, however, was quite something else, and Kite did not like it. What, he wondered, would happen to him if his avatar died in The World? He'd checked his real body where he'd been hit, and there were no bruises or marks, but they still had ached. What would an online death feel like?

He tried to push these thoughts from his mind, as he descended the stairs to the second level, but to no avail. Nor could he keep the images from his last venture into this dungeon out of his mind. So, it was with great trepidation that he stepped into the crossroads from which he and Orca had been teleported to that bizarre island of the girl and the monster. However, he needn't have feared, for there was absolutely nothing there. The background music didn't even flicker.

So, Kite entered the right hand passage. There was a portal there, but it disintegrated into nothing more than a treasure chest. It wasn't even a locked one, and within it was a magic scroll, which Kite took. And then he made his way across to the other room. Inside this one, unfortunately, were more monsters. Three Deadly Moths, to be precise.

Kite uttered a very nasty curse as they descended upon him, batting him between the three of them, almost as if they were playing a game of catch. But Kite, to his credit, merely clenched his jaw, held his controller in a death grip and concentrated on fighting back. And his methodology this time was to use a little magic. The scroll he'd earlier received, to be precise. It was a wind scroll, and it did a number on the moths, killing them all. "All Dungeon Portals Open" flashed across Kite's screen in yellow.

One Health Drink and the opening of a treasure chest later, Kite stumbled back into the central crossroads and made his way to the Gott Statue room where there was… nothing. He'd already taken the treasure once, and the game didn't allow players to take the same Gott Statue treasure more than once. And so, there was nothing else for him to do.

With a heavy sigh – Kite had been hoping (and yet dreading) that he might find something, anything leading him to or hinting at an answer – he turned and made his way back to the surface, where there were still no portals, and then returned to the Root Town. From there, with nothing more than a stop at the Recorder to save his game, Kite logged out and went to bed, mind still awhirl with questions. He had considerable trouble falling asleep that night.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Lookie! Mia! And Elk! Squee!

Yeah, I know. Chapter 3 is short. But… I felt that was the best place to cut it off. I was going to add in the first goblin match, but it doesn't really fit there, so it'll be in the beginning or middle of the next chapter.

Also, I'm not going to include random conversations with other player characters in every chapter… mostly because it doesn't always fit or flow or whatever. Heh.

And… I know that Kite's venture back into Bursting Passed Over Aqua Fields isn't really in the game's plot, but I highly doubt I'm the only one who, when first playing, went back there as soon as I could, just to see if anything was there, besides using the Spring. So… I felt justified in including it. He would have gone to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, too… but I figured he'd probably do that with Blackrose.

On other matters…

I still need a script of Unison. Or a link to place where I can download it _safely_ (I don't want to be uploading viruses and stuff on here with it) and for free.

And you guys would have had this up last week, except that I was off in the Caribbean. And.. OMG! I ACTUALLY TANNED A SHADE!

For you to understand just how much of a miracle that is, I must tell you a little explanation. First off, I am very pale. Not albino, as I actually have pigment… just very, very, very pale. I make Snow White look tan. Well, not the cartoon, because that's a cartoon and I hate the cartoon Snow White, anyway… her voice annoys me to no end, among other things (like she's an IDIOT), but that's beside the point. What is the point is that, as previously stated, I am very pale. Not unhealthily so in that my lips aren't chalky and my cheeks aren't drained of color, but you can trace the veins on the underside of my arms from wrist (and sometimes palm) more or less all the way up to my armpit, depending on the light.

All of my friends also agree that I am absurdly pale. Indeed, in a chatroom (which I wasn't at, 'cause I don't have IMs) of people from school, they were having a hyperbole contest involving paleness. Stuff like "I'm so pale I make snow look dark" was being bandied around. So then, my friend Char says, "I'm so pale I make Snarky look tan." And they then declare her the winner. (Actually, she used my real name, but I'm not going to post that here.)

All of this is just to emphasize the fact that I am pale. And to amuse you. Anyway, in the normal course of a summer, I rarely burn (unless I fall asleep in the sun for hours on end) and I barely tan even half a shade. Plus, by the time school rolls around, any minuscule tan fades in a week or so. Only if I were to spend hours and hours outside in the awful muggy (aka humid, sticky and hot) summer air would I tan much. So, for me to tan that much in that short of a time is a miracle. –grins broadly- But, it'll disappear by Monday, I imagine, when I've got to go back to school. Blah. Oh well…

Anyway, now that I've subjected you to my natterings that probably make me sound like I'm a self-centered northern European-descended vapid girl who can't shut up, (which is only partially untrue, as I really am desceneded mostly from northern Europeans, I am a girl, and by and large I can't shut up)… let me move on to replying to the unsigned reviews.

Rayne: Meep! I forgot to reply via Uber Flare… and I'm too lazy to do it now. Sorreh! And with the cats, I was only using people I'd encountered during that particular run.. and Acerola hadn't shown up, otherwise I'd have used her. O.o But really! Everyone I talked to, pretty much, was obsessed with cats! Ah well.. Thanks for reviewing! (I'll remember next time!)

Senkai Ninja / Rogue A.I.: Heyoo! -blushes- Thank you for all the praise! And the stars. I'm glad my novelization has been so well received. And don't worry… I definitely will have the Goblin Tag in here, though I don't know about the phantom SIGN characters… When I get to them is when I'll decide. But, yes! The sidequests will be here! Not necessarily all of them, though. Like the item collector one will only be in here when Mistral yammers on about it, as she undoubtedly will. Heh. Anyway, thanks for reading and thank you once again for the compliments. (yay for ego boosts!)

Until next time,

Sargent Snarky

PS: Random Trivia Questions for you!

Next chapter'll be dedicated to whoever answers them correctly! If you can't answer them all, that's fine. Answer's will be posted next chapter, regardless of anyone answering them.

Question 1: Who is Seig in real life?

Question 2: Who is Seig's rival in the game?

Question 3: Why did Seig select "Seig" as his particular name?

Question 4: (easy one!) Who won the One Sin event?

Question 5: What was the prize for winning the One Sin event?

Lastly, Question 6: Why was Balmung the recipient of the prize and not Orca? (if you don't know this one, try looking in A.I. Buster.)


	5. Chapter IV

.**The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

_Genre_: General

_Rating_: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

_Summary_: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

Spoilers: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

Note: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

THIS CHAPTER DEDICATED TO: Tobiasa and _Rogue A.I._ !

Congrats on getting the most answers right!

* * *

Chapter IV

The next day… Well, actually evening, but regardless, the next time Kite sat down at his computer, and opened his email, he was not surprised by any emails whatsoever. And, as he wasn't terribly interested in the news, he went right ahead into The World. But first, he checked the boards, skimming for something, anything; he didn't know what. Still, there was a chance he might discover some clue within.

And lo! The first new board he clicked on was a winner! Well, maybe not a winner, but it was still what he was looking for.

"Thread: Is this an Event Character?

Reply: Girl

I saw a strange character in the dungeon of (delta) Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand.

It was a little girl with long hair, but it didn't look like another player. She was kind of white – like a ghost and moved without a sound. Oh, and the music might have stopped too!

I could be mistaken, but if anyone sees her, please tell me!"

Kite wrote down the keywords on a pad of paper next to his computer so that he would not forget them. Then, since there were no replies to this thread, yet, he moved on. The board was full of a great many new posts today, after all.

"Test Version of The World.

Reply: Test Version (KYOUGOKU)

I heard that there was a test version of The World before it came out. Has anyone played it?"

No, that wasn't what he was looking for. Kite moved on.

"Protected Area

Reply: I can't go in! (waffle)

I tried a random keyword, but a warning message came up and I couldn't go in. I think it was (delta) Closed Oblivious Twin Hills.

Anyone know anything about it?"

That could be something related, so Kite also wrote that string of words down and moved on. There was a new thread where someone was complaining about his party being wiped out by monsters in a dungeon. But, Kite, after skimming it briefly and notating an area recommended for beginners (after all, if he had some free time, it would be good to level up, right?), he moved on. The only other new bits were a message added onto the Keyword Creation thread followed by some information on area elements. Once again merely skimming these, Kite left the boards and logged in.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

Kite, when he logged in, was in a way a bit disappointed to find that he could and did still feel everything. Perhaps it was a foolish fancy, but he had subconsciously hoped that when he logged in again, things would be normal…. Or as normal as they could ever be, given the current state of things. But, as they weren't, he let out a soft sigh and jogged forward, heading for the item shop, just to make sure he had a decent supply of Health Drinks.

He slowed his character to a walk as he went down the stairs to the shop, and that's when a fellow twinblade, on his way up the stairs, stepped in front of Kite, halting his progress. This twin blade wore clothing that was ninja style, albeit blue with yellow trim, as opposed to the stereotypical black. But the oddest thing about him was his set of blades. They weren't daggers or long knives, but, rather, vicious hooks he wore over hid hands instead of sheathed at his side.

"Excuse me, but would you like to trade?" asked Jutah, as the twin blade was named. "I'm specifically looking for Burning Oil. You can find it in Fire element dungeons."

"Sorry, I don't have any," Kite said, tone apologetic.

"Ah… too bad… Well, let me know if you find some. See ya around." And, with a nod, Jutah wandered off, disappearing into Mac Anu.

Kite blinked, then moved on to the item shop, where he sorted out the items he needed and purchased those which he had enough GP for. As he was finishing the last selection of Fortune Wires, a player sighed quite loudly next to him, complaining, "I'm so bored… and tired… I need sleep…"

"So, why don't you log off and take a nap?" asked another player standing there. This one was a wavemaster wearing green robes with yellow and white decorations. His hat did not entirely cover his light blonde hair, and he looked mildly annoyed. Kite's cursor named him as Tim.

The other player (labeled as Grid), save for causing his avatar to roll his eyes, ignored Tim and continued his ramble, "Hey! That radio show's on tonight! You know that show." He suddenly looked at Kite and Tim, since they were both in the same general direction. " 'Talk ON'?"

Tim nodded and Kite just blinked.

"It's sooo hilarious," declared Grid. "Talk On! Right on!"

"You need some help," Tim informed Grid.

Grid stuck his tongue out at Tim. And then began to hum. Kite was just beginning to walk away when Grid let out an exclamation of disgust. "What was that song! It goes lalalala… and it's been looping in my head forever, but I can't remember the name of the song!"

"Well, how should I know what song it is?" asked Tim. "You're tone deaf. Chances are you're not even humming in any known key."

"You're so nice. Pff… You've made me tired, so I'm taking off. Bye."

"Finally! You take my advice! Bye, Grid." Tim then glanced sidelong at Kite. "Are you going to just stand there staring, or do you want to trade? But, unless you've got Golden or Silver Axes, don't bother with me."

"No, sorry," said Kite, bowing slightly. "And sorry for eavesdropping… It's just…"

"Heh… no, it's all right. Grid's like that. Always has been… Oh well… farewell… I'm off for the time being, too." And with that, Tim left, likely to save and then log out.

Kite, meanwhile, wandered off to Elf's Haven, where he was accosted, along the way, by three further players, each seeking a trade. First, there was Cyan, a samurai type heavy blade desiring Well Water. Next, there was Benoit, a ninja type twin blade, who wanted Sports Drinks. And the third one Micino, a blade master, who was looking for axes, like Tim had been. A little unnerved by their persistence in finding these allegedly common items, Kite hurried to the recorder to save his status, then he sent a flash mail to Blackrose, as he didn't have anyone else's member address, and, well, he couldn't help but trust her.

A few minutes passed before he got a message from her saying that she would be there in fifteen minutes. So, Kite dithered for a moment, then decided to go try out the Goblin Tag event. From the message describing it, he doubted it would take long to complete, if he even could complete it at his level. However, there was no harm in trying. So, he went to the Chaos Gate and entered the keywords (delta) Detestable Golden Sunny Demon and away he warped.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Detestable Golden Sunny Demon

0 0 0 0 0 0

Kite appeared amid the three golden rings in a cheery, mild grassy field. It was a warm field, but not overly hot. A pleasant breeze rolled through, furthering the refreshing nature of the field as it carried the faint, distant scent of clover. But, this relaxing feel was utterly marred by the diminutive gold skinned gargoyle of a creature standing before him. It was a Goblin, albeit a sort different from the charcoal grey ones he'd fought before. This one had a glimmer of intelligence in its crafty dark eyes.

Its lips spread wide in a blue grin (complete with light blue teeth), the creature began to speak in a high, squeaky voice that was, despite this, definitely masculine. To punctuate his words, he waved his scimitar – his only weapon – back and forth, occasionally jabbing as well. "Let's play tag. If you win, I'll give you a reward. I really doubt that will happen, though."

The Goblin danced back and forth on his feet as a box containing the instructions "Defeat the Golden Goblin running in the field" popped up before Kite's eyes. Then, with a blink, the box vanished and Stehoney the Goblin took off running with a giggle. Kite took off after him, but found that the monster was barely faster than him and tended to turn sharply so that, if Kite timed it right, Kite could turn, too, and get in a slash or two at the Goblin.

However, this was a bit tedious and Kite did not wish to spend all day chasing Stehoney down and thus miss Blackrose. Therefore, he paused and searched through his inventory. Then, he selected a magic scroll at random and watched as his avatar went through the motions of spell casting. With a green flicker and the flash of a symbol beneath Kite's feet, as well as his utterance of the spell words that appeared before his eyes, Kite caused a tree to quite randomly sprout beneath the Goblin's feet, flinging him into the air before the plant vanished, leaving a Goblin with no HP left.

And so, Stehoney collapsed like a puppet whose strings are cut, only unlike a puppet, he let out a groan. With weak laughter, he choked out, "You did better than I thought. My bad for underestimating you. But don't get cocky! I'm only an apprentice of the Four Gob Kings!" He cackled, but the laughter disintegrated into coughs that faded into nothing, and he was still. The golden body turned grey and disappeared, leaving Kite with a Goblin Cap.

So, Kite examined the Goblin Cap's stats, but was disappointed to see that they weren't that great. But, it was his first event, and at least he now had a rare item. He warped back to town.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

Kite only had to wait around for another few minutes (after saving) for Blackrose to show up. After she appeared amid the typical trio of golden loops, she frowned, looking around for Kite, who waved to her, as there were several other players milling about the Chaos Gate, and he wanted to save her some searching. She ran over.

"Hey, there!" she said cheerfully, but Kite couldn't tell if it was genuine pleasure at seeing him, or a false happiness.

"Hi, Blackrose," said Kite. "Did you read the board..?"

"Which part? About the protected area or the strange girl?"

"Both, actually…"

Blackrose nodded. "Yeah… Were you going to check them out?"

"Of course… But, I thought I ought to call you…" He offered a weak, unsure grin.

"Good," she exclaimed. "Glad you actually have a brain! Because if you hadn't called me and then told me about it later, I would have had to do something you wouldn't like… And I've plenty of practice with my…" Something dimmed in her eyes as she trailed off, voice losing something of its boisterousness. "Never mind." Hurriedly, she offered an apologetic grin.

Kite looked at her sharply for a moment, then said, "Well… which one first?"

Blackrose thought for a moment. "How about we go find the girl, first?"

Kite nodded, but hesitated. "Although," he began, then stopped, blinking.

"What?"

"I was just thinking… maybe we should level up a bit, first… I mean, we are level one, after all."

Blackrose let out a slight groan and seemed about to protest, but then, upon brief reflection, decided better of it. "Ok, fine," she said, grudgingly.

"I read about a good area for beginners on the Board," said Kite, walking up to the Chaos Gate. "Discovered Primitive Touchstone is the field's name."

"Whatever. Let's go!"

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server

Discovered Primitive Touchstone

0 0 0 0 0 0

They appeared in a barren desert wasteland. Everything was tinted maroon or red, from the rusty soil to the hazy sky. And everything in the distance, from the vague mountain outlines to the nearer structures, shimmered in a heat haze. The sun blazed in the sky, crimson. Kite immediately, from the moment of appearing there, felt the oppressive, baking dry heat and did not like it in the least. Even though he didn't feel it full on. Indeed, he could still feel the cool, comfortable air in his room at the same time, which produced a rather odd sensation, but at least it saved him from a full onslaught by the terrible desert conditions. Although, it didn't save him from feeling a bit parched or from smelling the dusty, slightly metallic scent of this sanguine field.

"Ugh," Blackrose informed him. "This is gloomy. I never thought the color red could be gloomy, but this is awful!"

"Mm," Kite uttered in an agreeing sort of tone. He licked his lips, as they felt dry, then used a Fairy's Orb. "Well… shall we head to the nearest portal?" He gestured in the direction of said portal, which was too distant on the field for them to see, but was relatively close on the map.

So, they started off towards it and were coincidentally going towards one of the odd structures they'd seen wavering in the distance. When they were near enough to see it properly, though, Blackrose let out another cry of disgust.

"It's a skeleton! Most of these are skeletons! That's hideous!" She looked at Kite, somewhat accusingly, as if they were entirely his fault. He merely shrugged and ran off towards the portal, which they could see just on the other side of the enormous rib cage.

When this portal opened, it revealed exactly three monsters, though it looked like more. The first monster, a Mad Grass, which was a red flowered plant that ran around on its roots, snapping with fangs concealed within its petals, was singular enough, but the other two, which were both the same sort, called Disco Knives, were each comprised of three crimson scimitars that seemed to glare at them, despite not having eyes. Blackrose and Kite stared at the monsters for a minute before meeting them in the attack, albeit cautiously. Kite took on the Mad Grass, while Blackrose fought one of the Disco Knives. The other debated for a moment, then flew around Kite, slashing at his undefended back.

Kite, feeling the slicing, burning pain across his back, let out a cry that was half a moan, half a shout, for he hadn't expected the attack. Blackrose looked over swiftly, concerned, but Kite clenched his jaw, gripping his controller tightly as he attempted to control any further sounds of pain as he finished off the Mad Grass and turned on the Disco Knives. Blackrose, after dealing the deathblow to her enemy, joined him, and together the swiftly killed the thing.

"You ok?" she asked as they each cast a Repth spell upon themselves.

Kite nodded. "Yeah… just banged my knee on the bottom of my desk is all," he lied, although he didn't lie particularly well, as he didn't sound terribly convincing. Still, he hoped Blackrose would believe him, for he couldn't let her know about being able to feel and smell things. He didn't want to scare her.

He also neglected to mention anything about the breaking of the protections upon the monsters that he witnessed as their hit points decreased. No point, as she couldn't see them, and no point as he wasn't going to use the bracelet any time soon, if he could avoid it. However, both of them saw the Level Up flicker over his head and the slight glow surround him.

Therefore, although she gave him a hard glance, obviously disbelieving his excuse and wondering what he was hiding, she shrugged it away and said, "Congrats! You're now level two! No fair that you're ahead of me."

"I've played a little more than you, I bet," said Kite.

"Yeah, whatever… Hey, look! There's a chest left."

"Go ahead and take it."

"You sure?" Blackrose lifted her eyebrows in slight surprise. "OK. Thanks!" After opening it, however, she added, "Blah.. It's just a bandana. Oh well, I suppose I can sell it or… something."

"Throw it into the Spring of Myst, then," suggested Kite, pointing to what looked like a bit of wispy fog not far off. On the map, it appeared as a small blue circular symbol. "It's over there."

So, they went to the Spring of Myst, which steamed in the arid environment, but did not decrease in level in the slightest, although it bubbled a little. Blackrose threw the Bandana in. She then let out a cry of surprise as the Monsieur rocketed out and stared at her.

He asked, "Did you lose a Golden Axe? Or was it a Silver Axe?"

Blackrose was offerred a selection box with the three choices. She selected neither one and glanced sidelong at Kite. "Do they all have such awful voices?"

"Unfortunately."

Meanwhile, the Monsieur said, "What! Neither one? Hmmm… Let's see… Then is it this? Till next time, Goodbye!"

And with that, he disappeared exactly like he had disappeared for Kite the day before in another field.

"Ick," declared Blackrose. "I hope there isn't a next time… Hey, sweet! It's a better item, now!"

"That's good," said Kite. "Oh!"

"What?"

"I almost forgot… I was on yesterday, and I… found a Heavy Blade sword that's level 2, I think. I can't use it… So, do you want it?"

"Uh, Yeah. I'll take it. Thanks!"

Kite targeted her and initiated the Gift command, then selected the Earth Sword from his inventory. Blackrose accepted it, then equipped it, as it was better than her initial blade. They wandered off to the next portal, which contained a Goblin and a Mad Grass. The monsters were easily dispatched, and didn't hurt so much for Kite, so it was easier for him to avoid crying out.

As they were running to the next portal, however, he let slip the comment, "Ouf, it's hot here, isn't it?"

Blackrose paused and gave him an odd look. "Huh?"

Kite, quickly attempting to cover, offered her a grin and gestured around at the dry world. "Well, it is a desert. And with the haze, well, it's easy to imagine the baking temperatures."

"Heh. You're odd, you know. But, I'll admit this place does make me a bit thirsty. Good thing these avatars aren't really us, though, isn't it? We'd die of thirst, or something."

"Yeah…"

The next portal was identical to the last one, and the next portal after that was merely an item. The fifth of their field portals held two sets of Disco Knives, whose attacks Kite was more prepared for and covered up.

"Yeah! Right on!" Blackrose said, punching the air as she leveled up.

On their way to the next portal, they encountered, upon one of the rocks, a small orange flame, just dancing there. They both stopped to look at it.

"What the heck is that?" asked Blackrose.

"That's a symbol," said Kite, activating it. "It casts a random support spell on you."

This one cast Ap Ruem, a spell that raised their water elemental power. A little water symbol with an up arrow appeared over each of their status boxes at the bottom of the screen, and a swirl of bluish sparkles glittered around them, like tiny water droplets. For Kite, it cooled him down a bit, for which he was grateful.

Blackrose also liked it and revealed this by saying "Sweet!"

They also found, in between other portals, a few bouncing, hyper Snaky Cacti. The pair laughed at them, but only Kite collected them, as Blackrose declared that she probably wouldn't waste time raising a Grunty, so she wouldn't need them.

Over the course of the rest of the field portals, each of them leveled up another time and Blackrose gained another Bandana. In total, there were fourteen portals, and when they opened the last one, which held only a chest containing yet another Bandana that Kite took, a message appeared before their eyes declaring as much.

At this juncture, Blackrose cried, "FINALLY! Sheesh."

Kite chuckled at this, but he, too, was glad to be done with the trek. Besides, he was hoping that the dungeon would be cooler in temperature. And, with that, they headed into said dungeon.

When the pair descended the stairs, they found themselves in what appeared to be the innards of… something really big, which was, of course, disgusting. The walls around them were pink, slimy and pulsing. Blue veins and the occasional red artery spider webbed across the walls beneath semi translucent lining. The ground they trod upon was gummy and the faintest bit squishy, squelching a little beneath their feet. Instead of background music, there was nothing more than faint gurgling, bubbling sounds in the background. For Kite, the air was sticky, thick, hot and humid. Plus, while it wasn't strongly scented, it still didn't have a pleasant aroma. Kite looked forward to getting to the bottom and then leaving.

"Eeeeew," groaned Blackrose. "It's like we're in some monster's stomach! This is soooo disgusting!"

"Yeah…" Kite gazed around, grimacing.

"Please, let's do this quickly."

Kite nodded, and with that, they ran to the next room. It was rounded and had a huge hole in the center, like a donut. There were two chests to open, as well as strange growths that looked like twisted branches of flesh holding glowing pearls serving to illuminate the dungeon where spontaneous glowing of the walls did not. Also in place were two semi mummified bodies that, when illuminated with a cursor, were labled as Warrior's Corpses. Blackrose backed away from them with a shudder. Kite, however, slashed at one and discovered that it was nothing more than a container for a random item; it disappeared as soon as attacked. In this instance, it held a health drink.

As there were three other doors off of the room, Kite used a Fairy's Orb to show the map for this level. And armed with that, they set out systematically clearing the portals and gathering treasure. The only monster they encountered that they hadn't seen outside was a Deadly Moth, which popped up in about every other portal. As for items, they found that eggs and piles of eggs also wound up containing items, which Blackrose did not mind so much. And the only Grunty Food they found were two Bloody Eggs, which danced back and forth declaring exactly what they were in nasally voices.

Eventually, they made it down to the second level. The first room they entered on the floor had no portals and was shaped like a side ways V. But its distinctive feature was that it had dead bodies hanging from the ceiling. Blackrose groaned.

"Oh, that is just wrong… what kind of drugs were these sick programmers on?" she wondered aloud.

Kite merely shrugged in return, and they used another Fairy's Orb. "Hmm," Kite said, looking at the map. "This floor is symmetrical, too."

"What?"

"The first floor was symmetrical in design, and this one is, too."

"Really? That's cool, I guess."

"Well, it makes it easier to find your way around without a map if the dungeon has a specific pattern."

"Eh… whatever, let's hurry up! We've still got a ways to go."

And with that, they headed off into a room with two portals. As soon as they entered, the passage behind them was covered with a tough membrane, and both portals activated. A total of seven enemies appeared, causing both players to groan. This was going to be difficult. Two of them were new enemies, diminutive Goblin Mages, which were smaller than normal Goblins, wielded small wands and wore colorful dresses and skeletal masks. One of the monsters was a Mad Grass, and the remaining four were, unfortunately, Deadly Moths.

Blackrose went after the Mad Grass and then the Goblin Mages, leaving the Deadly Moths to converge upon Kite, surrounding him. Of course, she didn't intend for this to happen, but since she didn't see it coming, she couldn't do much about it, since she was chasing after the mages.

Kite, attempting to get out from the swarm, which bruised him painfully with their wings, rolled under one moth and ran a short distance. However, the Moths were rather fast, and they surrounded him again. So, he had no choice but to fight them all at once. However, he didn't fare well, for they managed to time their attacks exactly right so that he had no second in which he wasn't getting hit. It was rather difficult not to groan or yell. So, instead, he grunted, his face screwed up against the pain. Despite their excellent timing, though, he did manage to attack them a bit.

However, this ended when, just as Blackrose was running over from the dead Goblin Mages, one of the Moths rammed Kite with its body, sending him flying sideways into the wall. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the squishy parts of the wall, but rather a supporting random rib-like bone that Kite hit hard, then slid down with a moan, curling up a bit. He remained there, eyes closed, for a few moments, shivering a little

Blackrose, having witnessed this, was rather puzzled and concerned. However, she said nothing yet and instead cast Repth upon her companion, as his hit points were dangerously low. With a final shudder, he clambered to his feet, glancing gratefully at Blackrose and uttering a thank you, before heading back into the fray. Or, rather, he cast a Vak Kruz spell on one of the Moths, killing it before he actually entered the battle with his weapons again. Blackrose helped him with the last three Moths, which left behind two treasure chests.

Though she kept giving him odd looks, Blackrose didn't question Kite. However, during the rest of the battles on this floor, she watched him carefully. Kite pretended that he didn't notice her close scrutiny, though it made him uncomfortable; he knew she suspected something and would likely confront him soon, but if he ignored her stares and guarded gazes, perhaps she'd drop it. Or perhaps not.

After a time, they made it to the third floor. On this floor, there was another new enemy they hadn't seen before. This one was called the Chicken Hand, and it was a blue feathered, one-legged bird. Which Blackrose laughed at and Kite stared at with a quirked eyebrow. However, it proved a proficient enough fighter, and their laughter died as they struggled to defeat these strange bird monsters. Blackrose continued to watch Kite, and he continued to do his very best to hide the pain. Indeed, he was getting better at ignoring it. His pain tolerance was growing considerably. Which was a good thing, he supposed.

As they went through the rooms, they chatted amiably about inanities, and discussed things of The World. However, whenever they strayed near a topic involving the bracelet, people in comas, data bugs, or personal things, they either trailed off into uncomfortable silence for a few moments, or awkwardly switched to another topic. Indeed, much of their conversations were awkward, despite the friendly nature of discussion.

Also during this time, Kite ran low, though not out of, Antidotes, for the Goblin Mages were fond of casting poison spells on them. For Kite, they felt nauseating, so he cured his as quickly as possible. Blackrose had neglected to bring more than five, so she ran out on the last portal of the third floor, which let out two Goblin Mages, among other things. But, the first time she'd been poisoned, and her character had turned slightly purple, she had growled, "Kite! What the hell is this! Cure me, now!"

Afterwards, Kite had teased her a little about her overreaction, but her fierce glare quickly doused that. And eventually, they made it to the fourth floor. The only thing new there was an odd monster called the Sword of Chaos. It consisted of a sword with that apparently wielded, with invisible hands, its own smaller dagger and a tribal sort of shield. It was a nasty little thing to fight, as it was good at blocking blows with that shield and then nipping in with its tiny blade. On the fifth and final floor, there was a final new enemy, a Cadet Valkyrie, which looked like a female Long Arm player, albeit with subtle differences.

Both players were quite sick of this dungeon by the time they cleared the final portal, so when the message declaring that they'd cleared all of the dungeon portals appeared before their eyes, each let out a whoop of joy. And then hurried into the Gott Statue room. In the chest were a Ceramic Anklet and two Grunt Dolls.

"You can have them, if you'd like," said Kite.

"Nah… I got most of the other chests."

"Are you sure..?"

"Positive! Now let's get the hell out of here!"

They then used Sprite Ocarinas, and from the field, they Gated Out.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server: Root Town

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

"Wow… That was… interesting," said Blackrose as they walked from the Chaos Gate to the Recorder. "A bit annoying though."

"Why's that?" asked Kite.

"Didn't think it would take so long to level up and clear the place."

"Yeah… that was a looong Dungeon… But at least we're both level 6, now! That's pretty good for one field and dungeon, don't you think?"

"I guess."

There was a pause while each of them saved their games. Then Blackrose turned to Kite again. "You still have time to check out the other place? Where the girl was seen?"

Kite checked his clock. "I think so… So long as it isn't a five level dungeon again. But first, I know I need to stock up on Health Drinks."

"Ok. I want to go trade or sell my five bazillion bandanas."

"I'll meet you at the Chaos Gate in five or ten minutes, then."

"All right."

And with that, they split up, Blackrose running off to check the prices on Bandanas with the Weapon Shop man. Kite wandered over to the Item Shop. This time, he wasn't assailed by anyone wanting to trade from one random item or another. However, he did almost run into a silver and orange outfitted long arm. One of his eyes was closed, blinded by a scar running right across it, and his hair was white, giving him a somewhat imposing appearance.

"I'm sorry," said Kite, bowing slightly.

"Do not worry," said the player, Alpha Ichigoro, his words tilted by an odd accent and pronunciation Kite didn't recognize.

Kite bit his lip, then said, "Um… If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? Your accent… I can't place it."

"I do not mind. I was born in Roma, but live in Tokyo. I still am learning Japanese."

"Really? What's it like in Roma?" Kit asked, genuinely curious.

"Heh… In Italy, we have pasta every day! Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Pasta, pasta. All day pasta."

"Sounds like rice, here. Um… This may seem totally random to ask, but have you seen anything weird in any dungeons lately?"

"Huh?"

"Any monsters covered in green glowing scales? Or a tall, stone like creature bearing a red wand?"

"Ah… I don't understand what you say," said Alpha, apologetically. "I study what you say now. Talk to me later. I'll study more."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Bye!"

And Alpha left. After that, Kite went to the item shop and concluded his business there. Then, he returned to the Chaos Gate. Blackrose came up a few seconds later.

"You ready?" asked Kite.

Blackrose hesitated, cocking her head to one side as if listening to something. Then she said, "Oh drat! I'm really sorry, Kite, but my mom just ordered me off the computer. I've gotta go."

Kite blinked, then nodded. "All right. I'll check out the place on my own, then."

"Oh, fine. But let me know if you find anything, K? See you." Blackrose waved, then logged out.

Kite stood for a moment. Then, nervously, he accessed the Chaos Gate and warped away.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server

Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand

0 0 0 0 0 0

The field into which he came was not at all what he expected. Indeed, seeing it was quite a shock, for the whole thing was… messed up. Kite stared around with wide eyes, for strands of flickering code flitted through the air, fading in and out with fizzes of static, while in the pallid blue sky, great swatches seemed to have been ripped open to reveal a green, circuit board colored mass of dancing code, into and out of which floating objects in the sky fizzled. Ugly yellow and red patches splattered the ground and objects on the ground, filled with ones and zeros.

The field was supposed to have been a yellow sanded desert with palm trees and oasis scattered across, bringing patches of cool color to an otherwise bright field, but it was not so now. What should have been golden sand looked more like grey ash, and what should have been a sun soaked blue sky, at least of the parts that were still blue, was bleached and sickly. The palm trees and other decorations, too, were colorless, save for the splotches of raw data.

Kite could verily feel the corruption of the field. There was an oily slickness to the air that he did not like in the least. The temperature was tepid, and the air was stagnant, despite the impression given by the drifting lines of code. Kite shuddered, wondering what the hell was wrong with this place.

He slowly, warily made his way towards the dungeon and was near to it when another player hailed him from a short distance away. Kite turned and saw a ninja type twin blade dressed in purple and silver.

The player came close enough for Kite to hear him and said, "I cam after reading the Board, but the operator turned me back. I guess we can't play here… Sorry."

And then, before Kite could even ask a question, the player logged out. So, with a slight sigh, he set out towards the dungeon again. Unfortunately, he had to go by two portals, first. The initial portal contained two Deadly Moths, which Kite swiftly extinguished with a spell and a scroll. The second portal contained one Goblin Mage and two Swordmanoids, which were purple suited knights about his height, though smaller in build. Kite dodged around them to quickly kill the Goblin Mage, then turned to fight them as best he could.

After claiming a treasure chest from one and activating a nearby symbol that gives him Rip Seam, a spell that would slowly regenerate hit points over time, Kite stepped into the dungeon. It, too, was splotched with corrupted data patches. But unlike outside, there was a chubby administrator program NPC standing there. He looked rather like the shop keepers, albeit with a different color scheme.

He stared straight ahead and didn't do more than move his jaw as Kite approached, as though he'd been a hastily constructed program, given a body and a message, but nothing further to make him seem real or to fit in. "Thank you for playing The World This area is currently unstable and not functioning properly due to corrupted data configurations. Please return to the field immediately and Gate Out to the town."

Kite blinked at him, then shook his head. "No. If I give up now, I'll never be able to help him! I must continue," he said, but to himself.

So, the player brushed past the NPC, who repeated his message, but didn't actually do anything, and Kite descended into the dungeon. Because of the earlier leveling up, his restocking and the fact that he'd traded his Grunty Dolls with a player for a better set of weapons, he did quite well in the dungeon, clearing out all of the portals as he went. The only odd thing he encountered at first, besides the occasional static and wonky graphics, was an ornate post with a flaming symbol atop it. Kite hadn't expected to find a symbol in the dungeon, but he used it nonetheless. It granted him Ap Corv.

On the third level, there was no portal in the first room he entered, but he didn't just hurry through to the next room, for Kite had a sudden sense of foreboding. He knew without knowing how or why knew that in the next room, there was something, and it wasn't good. However, with a deep breath to steady himself, Kite entered.

He let out a gasp as he came through, for there stood a huge Data Bug monster. A corrupted Head Hunter, much like the one that had appeared in the Cathedral.

"…data bug!" Kite whispered to himself as the creature turned towards him, grunting and twitching. "I need to use Data Drain to defeat it." This last he said with dread. However, there was no way out, now.

Kite and the monster dueled. The corrupted thin attacked with spells of darkness, calling forth shining obsidian claws from shadows upon the ground and with swipes and slashes from its blade, leaving a green tinged purple light in its wake. Kite did his very best to dodge, attacking in the brief lulls between each attack, wearing at the Data Bug enough so that he could Data Drain it. However, he could not dodge them all, and they hurt like hell.

Because this was a powerful and large creature with a very sharp sword, when the sword connected, it was like a baseball bat given a meat cleaver's edge. Kite, despite the beating he took when he couldn't dodge, was eternally grateful that he wasn't actually in the game, because he would most assuredly have been in many pieces by this time. Normally, he did manage to avoid the brunt of the blow, but once, with a sudden burst of speed, the monster slapped him with its skull hand, then sliced directly at Kite's side with the blade, knocking him flying into the wall for the second time that day. And this wall, being stone as opposed to easily cracking bone, hurt more.

After sliding down this wall with a bit of a moan, Kite had the extreme misfortune to be trapped, before he could get up, in a darkness spell. A large hand of claws came out of a pool of blackness beneath him, stabbing him and, well, clawing at him. The boy, despite his growing tolerance of it, was still quite unused to pain like that, and he couldn't help but let out a slight whimper. For a moment after, he lay there, shivering, then pulled out a potion and drank it. It soothed the pain and refreshed him, so he staggered to his feet and threw himself back into the fight.

He couldn't afford to give up. If he lost… If he fell… No, he couldn't think of that now.

Finally, his eyes saw a large blue sphere of hexagons materialize around the infected monster and then shatter like glass. Kite, with some trepidation, leapt back, running a little ways away before calling the bracelet's power, much as he had before when he returned to Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field. But this time, it was a tiny fraction easier. And with time after this, it would assuredly grow easier and easier, but Kite didn't think of that now.

"Data Drain."

Instead, he performed the task. And the power of the bracelet hurt just as much as it had before. Kite could still feel something pulled out of himself and a little bit of something else forced in, too. He still cried out as the bracelet flared wide open just before the data drain proper, and he still stood there for a moment afterwards, shivering. Part of the excess data was rewritten into a Virus Core C, though Kite as of yet had no idea of its use.

The Head Hunter, uncorrupted and free from the green splotchy scales, was left behind to growl and charge at Kite, leaving him no time to recover from the data drain. However, it was easier to fight than the data bug, and though a second protect break occurred, Kite did not data drain again.

Once the monster finally died, Kite stood there, staring, rubbing his wrist, and thinking. He did not notice someone robed in white with blue trim and a floppy weird two pointed hat with a pair of ribbons hanging off standing behind him. His first warning was a high, squeaky woman's voice declaring, "Wow! Cool:D"

Kite started and spun around to face Mistral, or so his cursor named him.

She stared at him in awe. "I can't believe you defeated the monster be rewriting its dats! How did you do that?"

Kite shifted uncomfortably. "I uh…"

"Oh. Did I hit a nerve? Should I keep my mouth shut?" she asked, lifting her eyebrows. "I came because I read a post about it on the Board and it sounded interesting. But this place looks so weird," she added, going off on a tangent. "Even if the data is corrupted, it's too weird. :O"

"…"

"Well anyway, it seems strange things have been happening everywhere in The World. Ever since the server failure, it's all going downhill. There's something going on!" She stiffened suddenly and turned to the side. "What! Oh, damn it!"

She stood, avatar staring off into the air. Kite turned to see what she was looking at, but saw absolutely nothing. So, he turned back to her. After a moment, she faced him once more, rather apologetically, wincing.

"I burned dinner… :( Oh well, gotta go." She paused, then exclaimed, "Oh! I almost forgot. Invite me to your party next time. Let's do this again, 'kay?"

She exchanged member addresses with Kite, then pulled out a Sprite Ocarina and left. Kite, after resting a little while, went ahead and cleared the rest of the dungeon before he, too, returned to the field. From there, it was back to the Root Town.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta Server: Root Town

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

Less that three seconds after he had returned, a fellow player at the Chaos Gate called out, "He of fair eyes!"

* * *

Author's Notes:

I actually do have some notes about the chapter itself this time.

1) Spell Explanations: I don't think I explain what all of the spells do. If this bothers you, you can either look them up in an online guide to the game, or you can let me know in your review. If people would like, I can post, in one Author's Notes, a guide to the spells.

2) I tried to keep Blackrose and Kite's conversations in character, but as I was making them up from scratch, and since they still don't know each other very well yet, I tried not to make them as familiar and smooth as they will later be. So, if they seemed rough and a bit OoC, that's why. Still, tell me if they do.

3) Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand: I never actually went with just Kite, that I can remember. However, because of meeting Mistral in the bottom, I felt I should write as if Kite went alone, even though I brought Blackrose just to make sure I wouldn't accidentally die.

4) Goblins: Lookie! I put the first one in!

5) Dungeons; I know I didn't go into great detail with these dungeons like I did with Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field, but I've my reasons. First of all, they're kind of long and not much happens other than Kite opening chests, fighting the same monsters in different arrangements and cracking eggs, boxes, crates, etc. And, I know I don't wanna write all that stuff down in detail. Also, I think it would be long and boring if I did that, and I don't like long and boring. However, I do think some of the stuff in this chapter is boring.. so, sorry… If you've any suggestions on how to write boring dungeons interestingly, please let me know!

5) Piros at the end: I wanted to leave a cliffie of sorts. XD Actually, that's not really part of this chapter at all. It's the beginning of the next one, but let's just say I'm giving you a taste of what's coming. BUAHAHAH!

OK! First of all, thank you to all the people who reviewed! I'm glad all of you tried your hand at the trivia. This week, there are only going to be two questions, and they aren't really going to count for anything, methinks, but I'll keep tally of your scores for you!

1) In Mac Anu, if you go straight from the Chaos Gate, across the bridge and into the square beyond, there is generally a group of random players standing there. How many are in this group?

2) What is the title of the book Bear (from SIGN) wrote? His real name, in case that does anything for you, is Sakuma Ryou.

TRIVIA ANSWERS

(Note, the first three answers can be found in Liminality, episode 1, the next two in the games and in AI Buster, and the last one solely in AI Buster)

Question 1: Who is Sieg in real life?

Tomonari Kasumi, who is sort of perhaps Mai Minase's boyfriend. Both are from .hack/Liminality, but he also pops up in the game once before he falls into a coma and… well, I won't say any more.

Question 2: Who is Sieg's rival in the game?

Balmung of the Azure Sky, though I'd accept the Descendent of Fianna.

Question 3: Why did Sieg select "Sieg" as his particular name?

Sieg comes from Siegfried, a hero in Norse mythology. Among other things, Siegfried forged a sword he named Balmung from a meteorite and then used it to slay the dragon Fafnir. Sieg, who wishes to be better than Balmung, picked this name because the maker and wielder of a blade ought to be better than that blade, right? He was trying to one-up Balmung, as it were.

Question 4: (easy one!) Who won the One Sin event?

I did. That's right. I transported myself into the .hack universe and I killed the Spectrum Dragon! Actually, Balmung and Orca.

Question 5: What was the prize for winning the One Sin event?

Besides uber kudos, a single character upgrade with which one could do just about anything.

Lastly, Question 6: Why was Balmung the recipient of the prize and not Orca? (if you don't know this one, try looking in A.I. Buster.)

Because Balmung was the one who dealt the deathblow, not Orca. Balmung was the one to actually kill the monster.

SCORING:

Tobiasa: 5.5 of 6

Rogue A.I.: 5 of 6

Rayne: 4 of 6

Twilight Memory: 3 of 6

Twilight Sea: 2 of 6

Thanks for participating, you guys! -hugs you all-

Yours Truly,

Sargent Snarky

PS: I have started work on revising and editing Fragments of a Shattered Mirror, though I've not yet begun to reupload chapters in their edited forms. Once I've finished editing this, I ought to get my arse in gear and work on the sequels. I'll be sure to post on my userlookup when I actually start editing chapters.

Please note that with the editing, I will likely be rewriting some passages and cleaning up some clunky bits. Smoothing the edges and such. If I change anything drastic, I'll let you guys know. Ok? I also might be adding in a bit of stuff as I see fit. Or I might not. It depends. Hell, once I get into it, I may wind up entirely rewriting certain parts. Who knows. But, that said… I am editing it. It will take time, however, as I've got a million other things I've got to do that take precedence over it, including this fic.

PpS: X files rocks my socks! I LOVE Mulder and Scully! . I just started watching 'em earlier this year, and I'm on Season 3, right now. Almost through it, in fact, as I've got four or five episodes left to watch. But… -hugs Mulder and Scully- They make a nifty couple, too… Even though technically they aren't a couple.

And DON'T SPOIL anything for me, if you've seen more of the X files than I have. Ok? Thanks! - Sargent Snarky


	6. Chapter V

.**hack/The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

_Genre_: General

_Rating_: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

_Summary_: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

Spoilers: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

Note: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

THIS CHAPTER DEDICATED TO: Piros lovers. And haters. Here's the first chapter to feature one of his… adventures. I hope he doesn't come across quite so annoyingly now that you don't have to hear his voice.

* * *

Chapter V

Less that three seconds after Kite had returned, a fellow player at the Chaos Gate called out, "He of fair eyes!"

"Huh?" A little confused, Kite turned to face Piros, a large Heavy Axeman wearing green armor with a single red shoulder guard and no helmet.

"I trust your eyes," Piros informed Kite with great eagerness. "I have a favor to ask. A player I know is being harassed by a wicked monster in Delta: Indiscreet Gluttonous Pilgrimage. I will vanquish the wicked monster, and I want you to bear witness. You will do that for me?"

Kite blinked. "Uh… well…" He checked the time. "I guess so…"

"You will? Haha!" Piros grinned. "I knew you would say that. Oh good!" He laughed joyously. "I will be waiting for you there. This will be good!" He laughed again before bowing slightly to Kite and then logging out.

Kite let out a soft uneasy groan, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. Then, after saving, he followed Piros into the unknown field.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Delta: Indiscreet Gluttonous Pilgrimage

0 0 0 0 0 0

The field into which Kite warped was one different altogether from the ones he'd been in earlier. It was covered in a yellow grass, save for distant purple mountains, in which one or two castle towers stand tall and dark against the grey misty sky. Their flags whipped steadily in the wind, which, though light below, in this valley that was the field, moved clouds in a slow constant flow far above. Indeed, the clouds were just ragged and grey enough that Kite expected it to start raining any minute, but… it didn't.

Glancing at his map, Kite saw the dungeon to be very close, and, as he saw no Piros standing around, waiting, Kite assumed that the odd heavy axe man must have been in the dungeon. Therefore, although this field begged to be explored, Kite started off towards it. As he ran, he came to a tree before which stood two stone figures, one shaped as a man cringing and ducking away, as if he'd just been struck, and the other a woman, swinging her purse. They wore no clothing, but were not detailed. White flowers littered the ground around them and the tree. And Kite felt compelled to stop and stare for a long moment at this odd formation before tearing his gaze away to approach a magic portal floating in the way of his progress to the dungeon.

Within the portal was an ever-annoying Deadly Moth and an entirely new monster. A Sky Fish. The Sky Fish was a red and pink floating fish with a lilac stripe down each side. Its fins were spiny, and its flippers were wing-like. The flippers were normally folded at its side, but when it opened them, Kite saw a set of eye markings upon them.

While the Deadly Moth attacked in its same pattern, attempting to batter the twin blade with its powdery wings, the Sky Fish instead preferred to flutter just out of reach and cast a poisoning spell. The spell left Kite feeling a bit sick, even when he immediately used an Antidote, so he did his best to finish off the Sky Fish quickly before turning his attention to the Deadly Moth.

With that portal taken care of, there was one more magic portal between him and the dungeon. This one contained three Magical Goblins, which looked almost identical to Goblin Mages, save for their color scheme. Though they were fast and also liked the poison spell, they were easily brought low by one, maybe two hits. Kite was rather glad that he had plenty of Antidotes in his inventory, given the queasiness left behind by those poison spells. With luck, he hoped there wouldn't be any more of these things in the dungeon. Which was, now, right in front of him.

The dungeon wasn't an underground oubliette this time, but rather an enormously high, grey stone tower. It was wise, and random banners hung off of it at various intervals here and there up the sides. Kite wondered if instead of going down, as he had in every other dungeon, he'd go up instead. But, he didn't stand gawking for long before he entered.

Inside, it appeared more or less like any stone dungeon at its most basic. However, the details were unique, after a fashion. There were, for example, large red, vaguely Celtic designs twisting across the floor. Kite gazed at it, his eyes following the intricate knots for a few moments before he looked up, seeking Piros and friend. But, the pair weren't there. Where were they meeting, anyway? Kite didn't know, so he assumed he ought to just go down, checking all the rooms along the way.

And so, the boy went into the first room, which had a platform shaped as a large crossroad hanging over a deep, dark square pit. In each corner, a huge bladed pendulum swung back and forth. The four swung and swung slowly and silently and perfectly together, keeping and endless vigil over the dim room. Kite shuddered slightly and did his best to ignore them as he moved forward to activate the first portal. Within it were two Sword of Chaos monsters, which, though their small blades stung painfully, were not difficult to defeat.

From this crossroad, Kite went first to the left, which held a portal containing only treasure and a Golden Egg; then, to the right, which was a room containing a portal and lined with barred cells. In these cells were crumbly old skeletons and a few jars, placed just out of a player's reach. In the portal was a Sword of Chaos and a Magical Goblin.

Eventually, Kite wound his way to the stairs, which, to his disappointment, were shrouded in shadow, so he could not make out whether they went up or down. However, as he moved onto them, he found that they went down. Now, that was a shame, for there was this huge tower above him, and he was delving in the basement. Kite wondered if somewhere there was a hidden passage up to the top of the tower; he would have loved to see the view from the eye-watering height. But, alas, he was not here to spend hours wandering about in search of any secrets, so he descended to the second floor.

At first, in the second floor, all was just as above, and just as other dungeons. Then, Kite entered a long hallway with a portal. And when that portal dissolved, it left behind a Magical Goblin, a Sword of Chaos and… a Headhunter. Kite's eyes widened as they fixed upon the very same monster that had appeared in the Cathedral, and he fought the monster with trepidation, worrying every step of the way that it would turn into a data bug. Much to his relief, however, when it was slain, it turned grey and vanished, and Kite let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Despite this particular Headhunter not being a data bug, Kite still jumped and was leery as in subsequent portals, he met other Headhunters. But, he made it down to the third floor, in the end.

And on the third floor, he wandered into the Gott Statue (a large obelisk with a face and two floating fists) room. Figuring that, since the treasure (yellow candy and a rare Heavy Blade sword) was still there, Piros and his friend were fighting the monster, Kite grabbed the treasure (Piros could have some of it later, if he wanted) and then left to find where Piros's monster was.

Finally, Kite located the room in question and entered. Within, the first sight he saw was Piros running up to the dungeon portal; the man must've gotten there just before Kite, so it was a wonder they'd missed each other in the dungeon.

"He of Fair Eyes!" cried the exuberant Heavy Blade. "Bear Witness!"

So, apparently the 'friend' who was continually defeated by this monster was actually Piros. Ah well, Kite had expected as much, or at least something similar. Anyway, the monster was a Rock Head, and it was a large floating stone head that had two tiny palm trees on top, as if it were an island that had been shrunk. One on either side, a pair of floating rocks accompanied it, acting as its hands. Only one of those two had moss on it. The other was bare.

Piros attacked the monster with fervor, but not exactly successfully. He did cause a decent amount of damage at a time, but he was rather inept and missed as often as he hit. Furthermore, the monster seemed entirely unfazed by the repeated blows with a large axe.

"Arrrgh!" Piros was pounded on the chest and sent sliding back a few feet, but he got right back in the monster's face. "You're not gonna beat me! … ugh!" Hit again. "I am quite a new man today. You think… you can defeat me? Reveal your true powers!"

He kept this string of talk up as Kite watched, blinking. To himself, he wondered in all seriousness, 'Is he all right? Maybe I better help him…"

The twin blade then ran forward, but paused as Piros shouted, "Stay back!"

However, the axeman was knocked with a 'fist' making a violent clank once more, so Kite came forward to help. He highlighted the Rock Head with his cursor and whistled softly as he saw its stats. The thing had 410 hit points and it kept regenerating. Every half second, it regained twenty hit points or so, which meant one had to kill it quickly to really kill it. Kite darted in closer to help, but, unfortunately, the monster swung it's 'fists' around to him, as well. He was able to dodge the first swing, but the second caught him and sent him flying backwards. When he landed, he slid a bit farther before coming to a stop, his face screwed up against the pain of very much bruising. Chances are, if his body truly had been there, he might have had a cracked rib or two. As it was, however, his digital body was more durable, and Kite escaped merely with lower hit points and throbbing back and chest. Today… was not a good day.

The reason Piros' avatar did not get flung all over the room with the amount it got hit was simple. It was wearing heavy, heavy armor and itself was, well, heavy with broad shoulders and muscles, as the name Heavy Axeman would suggest.

Anyway, he shouted to Kite, "I can do this… myself… Brandish!" The last word was cried as he vocally selected an attack skill.

Kite ignore Piros' statement and, keeping his distance as he had no desire to be flung about again, used a scroll to create a wind tornado, as the monster was Earth Tolerant. Wind, after all, was the opposite element of Earth, in The World. This substantially damaged the hit points, which was the whole point. So, Kite immediately used Juk Rom (another tornado) and Juk Zot (trees piercing up from below) scrolls to finish off the monster. It collapsed with a loud and rocky crash as well as a deep groan.

Piros stared at it for a moment, then shook his axe at the corpse as it turned grey and sunk into the floor. "Hmm-mmm! That was quite refreshing!" he cried with vigor. "You may take the plunder." He turned to Kite and gave him the Meteor Strike recovered from a chest left behind.

"Ah… Thank you," Kite said, a bit awkwardly.

Piros laughed. "No need to thank me. I have a feeling we will yet meet again! Until that day… Farewell!" Piros bowed, a bit stiffly, given that his armor got in the way. "May the stars shine until the end of your journey." He gave to Kite his member address and then left.

Kite stared at the space where the other had been. "…nnn…" he groaned, then proceeded to mutter to himself as in real life, the boy stretched and yawned. "What was that? Oh well," he sighed. "I got his member address, so maybe I'll invite him…"

He checked the time, then used a sprite ocarina to leave the dungeon. Then, he went to Mac Anu, saved and logged out, figuring he'd deal with items and junk later. Once logged out, he went to bed, being rather tired.

0 0 0 0 0 0

The Next Day – Home

0 0 0 0 0 0

When Kite next got onto his computer, he had three new emails, and so the first thing he did was to check them. The first one had no picture and no address. It was listed merely as anonymous, and the subject was "Warning." The message itself read as follows: "You have been inquiring about server problems – case now. Do not ignore this warning, if you wish to continue playing this game."

Kite stared at it for a long moment, wondering whom it was from and what about his curiosity would prompt such a hostile reaction. However, he filed it away in the back of his mind and moved on to other emails.

The second one was from CC Corporation and had its logo as its picture. Subject? "You're Our Winner!" So, it was with curiosity and cautious anticipation that Kite opened this one. It said, "Congratulations! You are the lucky winner of our One Year Anniversary Power UP Campaign! As a prize, you will receive a special level up item created for this occasion. Please receive your prize at a shop in Root Town."

Kite again stared at it in bafflement. Aloud, he muttered, "I won…? So, I'll got to a shop, but… I wonder how I was entered…? Or… was it just all players?"

And then he moved on to the third and final email, which, he noted with surprised and a bit of happiness, was from Blackrose:

Subject: What do you…

... do when you're in your room? Don't just play games; you should go and work out. You'll get fat. :)

Kite laughed a little as he read it and then typed up a reply:

Subject: Well sometimes…

Aside from PE, I play soccer with my friends…

But only once in a while, though.

And then… he logged in.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

Once inside the game, he went to the Item Shop. On his way, he was halted by a red and white clothed wavemaster who, according to his cursor, was named Henako. She grinned at him, looking the twin blade up and down.

"Oh yeah! Come on! Right on!" she exclaimed, laughing a bit to herself.

Kite blinked at her.

"You're a fine gentleman. You got your hormones on? You're making me hot!"

Kite stared at her. "Um…"

She laughed again. "I am Henako, the goddess of love!" She then began to hum a tune that seemed to be her own personal theme music.

Kite continued to stare.

And Henako stopped, yawning audibly through her mike. "Henako is tired… Henako has no more energy. Time for Henako to sleep. Good night, says Henako."

And once again, as she left, Kite was left to stare in disturbed bafflement. How many crazy people had he encountered, now? It was a full several minutes before he pulled himself back together and went onto the item shop. There, the NPC greeted him and spoke:

"Congratulations! You are the winner of our prize! Please take your prize." Kite received an item called the Book of Law, and the shopkeeper continued, "The Book of Law is a rare item that upgrades your character. Select the item from the item window and the character's elvel data will be updated."

"Ok… thanks," said Kite, nodding.

Then, he ran off to save. As there wasn't anyone around the Chaos Gate at the moment, he moved over near it and decided to try the item. However, when he selected the option to use it, a message popped up, blaring in red, "INSTALLATION ERROR," followed by text in white saying, "Character data overwrite is forbidden."

Kite blinked. "Huh? That's… weird."

He tried again, but received the same message. Puzzled, Kite returned to the Item Shop, but the NPC there didn't even register that he'd given Kite the item. Instead, he merely greeted Kite and asked if the boy needed any potions. When Kite inquired about the book, the shopkeeper merely looked a bit puzzled.

"If you want to know about books," he said, "go to the Magic Shop."

So Kite, with a sigh, traipsed off to the Magic Shop, but there, the shopkeeper also seemed a bit puzzled. He said that there was no such item as the Book of Law to his knowledge, but perhaps it was some rare tome whose powers and secrets had yet to be unlocked. Kite took that to mean that the administration hadn't finished with activating the item yet. Or, perhaps he'd missed something in his email.

He logged out to check. In the short time he'd been logged on, Kite'd received one new email, from Blackrose, so he read that one, first.

Subject: Re: Well sometimes

I don't play soccer, but I like watching it.

Ps: Don't flashmail me when you get online; I'm not logged in, and I've got to go soon, so I won't be logging in, anyway.

Kite sighed; he'd been hoping to show her the book and ask what she thought about it, but it was just as well. So, he replied:

Subject: How about you?

Do you play sports? (and that's all right)

Then, he reread the email regarding his prize. He reread it again. However, no where did it say anything about having to activate it or having to wait for it to be activated. Then, he checked the time it was sent – five minutes before he'd logged on – so he figured it had to be just a delay or a glitch that they'd soon fix – and if they hadn't by the next day, he'd email them about it, anyway. So, he logged back in.

Once more in Mac Anu, Kite loitered by the Chaos Gate for a few moments, pondering how to kill time before trying a final time to use the book. He stared absently at the swirling portal for a few minutes before an idea hit him. Sliding the visor off of his eyes for a moment, Kite reached for the notepad he kept next to the computer, upon which he'd written down the fields he wanted to be sure to visit. There was only one he hadn't checked off – Closed Oblivious Twin Hills – and next to it he'd written the note 'protected area.'

Kite nodded to himself, then slid the visor back on. Next, he activated the Chaos Gate and entered in that protected area field. He read the field's stats for a moment, was a bit worried over its apparent level 10, and debated just picking a random low-level field instead. However, curiosity got the better of him, and Kite accessed the field.

For a moment, it seemed as though he would just warp to the field normally. However, a beeping sounded in his ears and before his eyes flashed the message (in red) "Protected Area: Access Denied." It flickered for a moment, but then, just as a little selection box formed to let him exit the warning, he felt his bracelet begin to twitch. He sensed, more than saw, it flicker and twist, as if it were trying, itching to do something. This, of course, worried and freaked the boy out a bit, so he quickly turned and ran several steps away from the Chaos Gate – far enough that he wasn't within selecting distance anymore. Along the way, his lips were twisted into a grimace, and he rubbed his prickling wrist.

He was standing, staring at his bracelet not more than a minute later, when the little blue envelope flashed on his screen, alerting him to new mail. So, worried and eager to escape the strange world that was The World, Kite logged out to check.

It turned out, as he opened his email, that there were actually two messages, now, and the first one was, again, from Blackrose. So, he opened it:

Subject: Re: How about you?

Thanks for asking!

I'm on my school's varsity tennis team! I'm the only one on varsity as a sophomore!

My goal is to play center court in Wimbledon. Heh heh. :)

Anyway, gotta go to practice (which is why I've not logged on), so see ya!

Kite lifted his eyebrows in surprise. So, Blackrose was a sophomore? Wow. He wouldn't've guessed at her being much older than him, and, he supposed, she wasn't, but all the same… there was quite a gap between eighth grader and high schooler. He wondered what she thought he was. Then, he decided it was probably better he didn't know. He debated typing a reply now, but decided against it, figuring he could write one later. It wasn't like she was hanging off her desk, waiting for a reply, after all. So, he moved on to the second email.

It was from, surprisingly, the purple cat player, Mia. Kite had to wonder what the hell she'd be emailing him about, but it was a wary sort of wonder. In order to edit a character like she had, she'd need to be a hacker, and it wasn't as though Kite could tell whether she was a good hacker or a bad. So, he wondered if he should just delete her email until he got to know her better. However, when he looked at the subject of her email, he thought better of it.

Subject: Power of the Bracelet

Data Drain is not the only power in your bracelet. Do you want to know more?

You do, don't you?

(delta) Boundless Corrupted Fort Walls

I'll be waiting at this area, so come alone.

Kite frowned at it, wondering if he ought to believe her. After a few moments of thought, he logged back in and accessed the Chaos Gate. Then, away he went.

* * *

Author's Notes: 

A short chapter, I know, but I feel guilty about going so long without an update on this, so… I'm giving you what I have.

My delays I apologize for profusely, though I don't really have great excuses. Well, other than developing a major love of RENT, which has been occupying much of my inspiration and writing time recently. Also, for a while I couldn't find my jump drive, which had my copy of this chapter on it. But, I found the jump drive. Oh, and also… I haven't been playing .hack recently as during the times I've actually been able to play video games (I've been busy & my sister uses the guest room where the PS2 lives when she comes down every week, so I generally can't play on it during the evenings during the week) I've been playing KHII. And Oblivion, on the computer. And both are, I must say, VERY fun! Hehe…

Yeah… Anyway… that said, please don't expect an update in this for a while, as I've got driving school and volleyball and the forced volunteerism my school subjects us to. (we are required to have forty or fifty service hours to graduate… So, we are FORCED to VOLUNTEER for things. How's that for oxymoronia, then?) Then, I also have summer camp for a week, and by the time that's done, it'll be August, and… I'll need to do summer reading and crap, so… yeah. Updating in ANY of my fics will be slow during that time, but for this one especially because in order to do chapters, I first have to write out notes, copying word for word what the characters say and write. I also have to write what they do, what's going on, and, if it's a new character, what the character looks like, how it acts. So… that takes forever. Then, I write it all again, but in the form you see far above. Heh. Yeah… Unless I have large blocks of free time, I don't do that.

ANYWAY… Onto other stuffs.

TRIVIA: No, you're not getting the answer to what Bear's book is right now. Why? Because A) only once person bothered to give me an answer besides 'I dunno' (thanks A.P.Z.A.E.!) and B) Though I've got it written down somewhere, I'm far too lazy and tired (hey, it's three thirty in the morning, peeps!) to go find it, now. You'll get the answer next chapter.

NOTES ACTUALLY CONCERNING THIS CHAPTER AND THINGS CONTAINED IN THE STORY:

1) Random Characters: The reason Kite keeps encountering totally random people is pretty simple. In an online RPG, you meet totally random people all over the place. Now I've only ever played Runescape, but I've friends who'll attest to the randomness of people in other RPGs. Granted, if you play long enough, you'll start to run into some of the same players, but when you're just starting out (as Kite is), chances are very good that you'll find a ton of random people before you recognize players' patterns and are able to actually start to develop a relationship of sorts with the 'random' people. So, if you don't like the fact that every chapter he meets new and strange people, don't worry. As this goes on, though he'll still be meeting the random people, he will start to form friendships and whatnot with some of the random people. Just… not yet.

2) Gate Hacking: Will be coming up in the next chapter. Hurrah!

3) Three is a Magic Number

Yours Truly,

Sargent Snarky

PS: If you reviewed and I never replied, I am sorry. I try to reply to every review, but sometimes I forget and sometimes FF dot net doesn't send me the reviews, so I only discover them when I'm updating my fic. Yeah. Anyway, please do review, however; reviews are to me as drugs are, I suppose, to a junkie – I just can't get enough, and I go into withdrawal if I don't get enough.


	7. Chapter VI

.**hack//The Rising of the Wave**

A fanfiction by Sargent Snarky

_Genre_: General

_Rating_: T / PG 13 for mild language, thematic elements, etc.

_Summary_: A novelization of the games. Nothing more. Nothing less. Kite is, of course, the central character.

Spoilers: Not if you take it as you play the game. If you haven't played the games and you skip to the, like, fifty seventh chapter, of COURSE there'll be spoilers, but if you just read it as you play the game or something like that, then there won't be.

Note: Although I will in many instances be taking thing directly from the games, in conversations, descriptions, et cetera I take artistic license, so it won't be exactly like the games.

THIS CHAPTER DEDICATED TO: A.P.Z.A.E. for being the only person to attempt much less be remotely correct on my one trivia question about the book that Bear wrote.

The answer is: Annwyn Side Story

You can find this out by watching a certain episode ( I don't remember which one) in .hack//SIGN. New Trivia Questions will follow the chapter.

This chapter is also dedicated to Melody of Shadow, 'cause you finally updated "Stray Child", and I love you all the more for it! (Now maybe you'll get around to writing a third chapter? –grins hopefully-) For everyone not MoS, go read it! It's good! (and yes, it's in the .hack games genre…)

( By the way, Chessa, I may be stealing Balmung's tuna-loving cat later on in this fic. I hope you don't mind. ;D )

* * *

Chapter VI

Kite had been in Boundless Corrupted Fort Walls only a few seconds when Mia's voice resounded in his headphones. However, in those few moments, he'd ample opportunity to view what sort of field this was, and it was not a heartening sight. It was another corrupted field, all splotched with raw data patches, the air spotted with drifting lines of code, but from what little structure remained, Kite decided that it must've once been a field of the same general type as the one he'd early visited with Piros. It was nighttime in the field, and the dim lighting, cast by the full moon, hanging low over distant purple mountains, gave the whole area a rather ashy look, as though it'd been burnt with a cold grey fire. As it was night, there were, of course, insects chirping. However, for every few normal cricket noises came an abnormal metallic sound, a quiet screech.

"Hi," began Mia's voice, friendly enough, though full of mystery. The way she spoke, it always sounded as though she had a secret that she was about to tell. "I've been waiting for you. Actually, I'm also interested in your bracelet. Thanks for coming. I'm at the lowest level of the dungeon… You _can_ make it here, can't you?"

Kite blinked, a bit surprised, but he recovered quickly and asked, "How do you know about Data Drain?"

"Well," she began, sounding as though she were smiling or perhaps holding back laugher. "It's hard to say."

And then she was silent. The vocal link was severed.

So, Kite looked around, seeking the nearest magic portal. Despite the anticipated pain and duress a battle would bring, the twin blade was curious as to what sorts of monsters lurked here. Thus, tentatively, he ran towards the nearest portal.

With a flash and the usual flickering fade-out, the portal dissolved to reveal two Fiend Menhirs. To Kite, they looked nothing more than large, bounding, purple statues, roundish with wide, toothy grins and blue tattoos. And, to Kite, they also looked like a long fight.

Immediately, one hopped towards him, making the ground around it tremble with each thudding impact. However, as Kite moved swiftly to attack it (while the other monster kept its distance), the creature halted, then turned, running after it had received a few blows. It led Kite on a merry chase as the twin blade whittled away at its hit points. The twin blade did not escape without injury, for the thing swatted itself at him several times, but it wasn't too terrible. Strangely, Kite felt as though he were growing used to the pain. He didn't know if that was a good thing, though.

Eventually, he'd worn the stone behemoth down sufficiently that the Protect Break symbol appeared in his vision. However, he ignored it and kept plugging away until the stone beastie fell. Much to his horror, though, immediately afterwards, with an animation of glowing feathers, the creature rose, again, it's hit points completely full.

"No! What am I supposed to do, now?" Kite wondered aloud, as he glanced towards the other Fiend Menhir, who'd cast the resurrection spell.

His time for wondering was cut short by the monster swatting him, though, so Kite merely commenced the same pattern of chase and whittle as before. This time, when the Protect Break symbol appeared, however, Kite stepped back, took a deep breath, and activated the bracelet. He sucked his breath in sharply at the stinging pain upon his wrist, but he held firm as the data drain commenced in all its glowing wonder. Thankfully, or at least Kite considered it worthy of thanks, this process, when performed upon a creature that was not a data bug, didn't hurt nearly so much, though it still was not a comfortable thing by any means.

When the shimmering pulses of light faded and the bracelet collapsed again, a tiny creature and an item – a Wind Axe, made from the excess data, apparently – were all that was left. The tiny thing was labeled a Wiggle Snake, and it let out a terrified squeal before scampering away (though it wasn't terribly fast) as best it could. Kite ignored it and ignored the Axe (resting, now, in his inventory) in favor of taking care of the remaining Fiend Menhir, though this one he was able to dispatch without the aid of Data Drain.

With that monster gone, Kite also ended the existence of the Wiggle Snake, as it hadn't wandered too far out of reach. And then, he stopped to open the random treasure chest, as well as to ponder. He pulled the Wind Axe from his inventory and examined it, puzzling over this new use he had found for the infernal bracelet and its awful, peculiar power.

But, he didn't let himself ponder for long. Mia was waiting, after all. So, after gazing at his corner map, Kite started towards the dungeon (a tall, dreary, data spotted tower), then made his way down, into the abyss…

In the entrance room stood an Administrator NPC, silent until Kite approached, at which point the NPC stated: "Thank you for playing The World. This area is currently unstable and not functioning properly due to corrupted data configurations. Please return to the field immediately and Gate Out to the town."

Kite sighed. Not this, again! But, he couldn't go back. He had to go to the bottom of the dungeon and meet this Mia… find out what she knew, if she would tell him. So, of course, he completely ignored the administrator and went right by the NPC, into the first room.

It was a large square room, rather bland and dull, though it contained four doors (one on each wall) and a single portal. Since the doors immediately shut upon Kite's entrance, he ran forward to activate the portal. Out of it came three monsters: Two Dust Curses – more of the sword-wielding-a-dagger sort – and a swarm of Bees.

The Dust Curses were easy enough to deal with, as their attacks were easy to dodge, and they moved relatively slowly. The Bees, on the other hand, were an utter nuisance. Since there was a large group of them, they were difficult to avoid at best, and they frequently cast a poisoning spell on Kite. So, he spent the fight feeling rather woozy, as well as developing an appreciation for insect repellant and citronella candles. He found himself wondering if they could be bought in any of the root towns.

Eventually, after a bit of wandering and treasure-collecting (and the activation of a Symbol that gave Kite Ap Corma), Kite found the stairs downward, so downward he went. The second level introduced a new enemy in the first room with portals. A Shield Man was a knobby goblin-gargoyle-demon sort of creature, wielding a creepy-faced shield and a weapon. The oddest thing about them, though, was that they floated.

However, Kite didn't really bother to reflect on their oddities, but simply tried to end the battle as quickly as possible, because those weapons HURT. A lot. Kite wasn't so numb to the pain, yet, that he wouldn't mind a beating or two. He did, however, take the time to appreciate the sparse portal distribution in this dungeon as he made his way down to the third level.

He had only made a few steps into the first room when Mia's voice once again spoke in his ear, though he didn't see her anywhere around: "So, what do you think? Do you think the area is really corrupted? The truth is, for something to be born, something must break. The same applies to humans. Do you understand what I mean?"

Kite blinked, but didn't respond. Yet, there was no need to, for Mia once again broke the connection.

The twin blade made his way through another short floor and down to the next, where Mia's disembodied voice once more addressed him: "You came here to find the secret of the bracelet, but you don't quite trust me," she said, a touch of amusement in her voice.

Kite lifted an eyebrow, mouthing a 'no, really?' to himself.

"The world does not consist of only 1s and 0s. It allows the existence of areas between Yes and No. Humans are interesting, aren't they?"

Kite wondered why she said 'humans' as though she weren't one. But, it soon slipped his mind as he pondered, instead, why she was speaking these assorted thoughts aloud to him.

A brief time later, and he had arrived on the fifth floor. This time, he was not greeted with any words of wisdom (or folly – Kite wasn't sure which they were, yet) from the enigmatic Mia, giving him the sense that maybe this was the lowest floor. He hoped it was. Dungeon delving, after all, wasn't what he was here for.

He went straight forward, into another large, square room containing a single portal. Kite hesitated, and in that moment of hesitation, Mia spoke.

"Go closer to that magic portal."

Kite obliged, but the monster, which popped out, was not what he expected, for it was a Data Bug. It was very large and looked roughly like a batty, slightly dragonic butterfly or moth. Whatever colors it was meant to be were hidden and marred by the data patches, for it was scaly with the infection. Immediately entering a highly defensive mode, Kite wondered if this was all a trap, orchestrated by Mia simply for the purpose of… he didn't know what.

"Now," Mia commanded, eagerly, "show me the power of that bracelet!"

Fortunately or unfortunately, Kite had no opportunity to ponder, for the monster swooped towards him, belching fire and swinging its long tail. The fire burned, of course, and the tail stung where it struck him, but Kite soon picked up on the creature's attack pattern and was able to avoid most of the hits. Those that still connected were easily taken care of with his hefty supply of Health Drinks.

It took some time of chipping away, but eventually Kite's hard work was rewarded with the vision of a polygonal bubble shield appearing and shattering. The creature's protection was broken, and Kite could now perform Data Drain. Therefore, he did so.

It hurt horribly, as expected, given that this was an actual virus-infected monster, but Kite held back the usual shout of pain that threatened to burst forth, emitting little more than a whimper between clenched teeth. When the bracelet collapsed upon itself again, Kite found, in his hand, another virus core, this one a Virus Core M.

When the static surrounding the monster dissipated, a Red Wyrm was left behind. It had Fire Tolerance and eight hundred some hit points, but, as its attack patterns were exactly the same as its Data Bug counterpart, Kite found it relatively easy to beat, so long as he was cautious. As the HP neared zero, the protect break occurred again, but Kite refrained from data draining it a second time, instead merely focusing upon killing it.

As the final blow was delivered, and the monster collapsed, turning grey and fading, Mia spoke from behind him: "So that's the Data Drain. I've never seen it before."

Kite spun around to face both her and the wavemaster who'd accompanied her earlier. Elk, as was his name, was standing a bit behind and to the side of her, gazing first at Kite, then at Mia, then back again, expression inscrutable, save for a tad of confusion.

Kite, meanwhile, was both shocked and a bit angry at Mia for tricking him like this. "What?" he demanded. "What do you mean by that!"

Mia sighed, though her knowing smirk remained. "Are you angry?" She blinked. "I just wanted to know the extent of your power. If you were too weak, there would be no point in teaching you how to hack the gates."

"Hack gates?" Kite inquired, a bit puzzled.

"You just drained a virus core. That talent comes in handy if you know what you're doing. Virus corse, you see, are the key to breaking through protective barriers. Of course, virus cores are useless to those who don't have the bracelet."

Kite wondered how the hell Mia knew all of this, whether she herself was a hacker. Elk, meanwhile, looked a bit surprised, too, and a bit… jealous?

"I'll show you how to hack the gates," offered Mia. "Come to the Chaos Gate." The smile widened a bit. "I enjoyed watching the Data Drain."

Then, she pulled out a Sprite Ocarina, and Elk did likewise. Kite stared at where they'd been for a few moments, while he considered what to do. In the end, though, he decided to just go along for now, and he pulled out one of his own. When he arrived in the field, outside the dungeon, Mia and Elk were already gone. So, Kite gated out.

0 0 0 0 0 0

Mac Anu

0 0 0 0 0 0

Mia and Elk were waiting, leaning against one of the nearby columns of the courtyard surrounding the ever-spinning Chaos Gate. The cat-player smiled and nodded to Kite as he approached them. Elk watched coolly.

"First, add us to your party. Then, we will go to the gate," Mia instructed.

So, after receiving their member addresses, Kite sent the invites, and within seconds, Mia and Elk were in his party. Mia nodded and strode closer to the Chaos Gate, gesturing to it with an outstretched hand.

"Ok," she began. "Enter the keyword for a protected Area. It should, if you let the bracelet do its work, open the menu to hack the gate. You do know the keyword for a Protected Area," she added as a statement, rather than a question. "It was posted on the Board. The keywords are: (delta) Closed, Oblivious, Twin Hills."

Kite followed her up to the Chaos Gate and activated it, opening the field selection menu. Then, he entered the keywords. As before, once he selected the option to warp there, a beeping sounded in his ears and the message flashed: "Protected Area: Access Denied."

Unlike before, however, Kite didn't turn and run as the bracelet twitched and flickered. Instead, he lifted his arm up, holding the bracelet between him and the Chaos Gate. The bracelet didn't expand, instead merely flashing in resonance with the Chaos Gate. A moment later, in front of Kite's hand, appeared a small cross of sorts, crystalline, but strangely flat. On one of the four prongs were two identical slots, missing shards, it seemed. Adjacent to that particular prong was an M followed by 02, and all of this seemed to make up its own peculiar menu.

As Kite stared at it in confusing, Mia spoke: "See? You need Virus Cores," she said, pointing to the slots. "Check the gauge to see the type and number of virus cores you need to hack the gate. If you have all of the necessary virus cores, you can fill the gauge and hack the gate. After hacking the gate, though, the virus cores you used will be gone, and, once you've hacked a gate, that area will be open to anyone. Do you understand?"

Kite nodded, eyes fixed upon the gate hacking menu. He added the two Virus Core Ms to the cross from his inventory. They flashed briefly in their slots before blending completely into the cross, which itself flashed. A message saying COMPLETE appeared plastered over it in yellow.

What happened next was completely unexpected… at least for Kite. His bracelet twitched again, then expanded fully, all five blue prongs straightening into a strange star, while the smaller green 'scales' around his wrist shifted and twirled a little. It jerked Kite up into the air, forcing him to jump, and his ears were filled with silence as all sounds died away. Mac Anu faded from his vision as a portal rift to open up, allowing him a view of a tunnel of nothing but data, and it was into this tunnel he was pulled by the bracelet.

The moment he entered, the world around him flickered black and white for a brief instant, and then the portal closed behind him, leaving him seemingly trapped within a vertical tunnel of rushing white noise and data. 1s and 0s floated by in steady streams, while other, more complex codes braided themselves in between.

In this tunnel, Kite was suspended by the bracelet, whose longer and shorter arms folded down to form a sort of cone shape; this then pulled Kite up and through the river of data. Then, abruptly, the bracelet began to collapse completely, and Kite alighted in a crouch upon an invisible platform of some kind. Another rift opened in front of him, and he was pushed towards it, even as the bracelet completely contracted. So, he leapt forward and landed in the formerly protected field.

It was, in terms of weather, time of day and background noises, much the same as the field he'd gone through to meet Mia in the first place. Raw patches of data splattered everything, and the white lines of code floated through the air like alien fireflies. The distant bits of scenery, however, were different than the previous field, but Kite didn't take the time to actively study the field. Instead, he waited for Mia and Elk.

And he didn't have long to wait at all – mere seconds before the pair appeared next to him, amid the more traditional three golden rings. Elk looked around, his expression unreadable, and Mia merely looked satisfied, an odd little smile curving her lips - that smile that was always there, a product of her catlike face.

"There must be some kind of secret in these protected areas," she stated, looking sidelong at Kite. "That's why they lock them, right?"

Kite didn't reply, but merely looked back at her, perhaps thinking about her or about this field or perhaps nothing at all. Regardless, he, Mia and Elk stood for a few moments in silence before Kite got the hint (via a meaningful look from Mia) that he was supposed to take the lead. So, he did, leading them towards the distant dungeon.

Along the way, they encountered a portal, which dissolved to reveal a Red Wyvern. Though Kite and Mia sprang forward, immediately on the offensive, Elk hung back, casting La Repth as it was needed. The battle was easily won, so long as they were careful to dodge the flames (something Kite made sure to do, as he wasn't keen on revealing his unfortunate sensory connection at this time). However, Mia's attacks, Kite found, were much weaker than his own, and when he checked the party stats, he was surprised to see that both of his companions has much lower levels, Elk being level three and Mia level five.

How then, Kite wondered, had they ever managed to get to the bottom of the last dungeon without getting killed? For this he had no answer (except that maybe they were very good at avoiding portals), so he dismissed the train of thought to the back of his mind.

Anyway, they presently reached the dungeon and went within. Through the first door, they reached a room with one portal, whence emerged a Scorpion Tank. Kite stared at the thing in awed wonder for a moment, as it truly was a bizarre and frightening creature (as opposed to the sillier ones, like goblins). It was a huge thing, something akin to a cross between a catapult and a cart, with large spiky wheels and a scorpion sort of tail and beady eyes.

The monster glared at them before lunging forward with its tail, seeking to impale any one of the three players before it. So, said three players scattered in three directions, hurrying to get behind the creature before it could lunge again. Then, they assumed the battle strategy of before: Kite and Mia pounded at the thing, while Elk hung back to administer healing, though this time he did contribute one or two fire spells, as the monster was of the water element.

It was a bit harder for Kite to avoid taking damage this go around, but at least he'd grown much better at hiding any signs of pain since he'd first received the bracelet. Nevertheless, every time he was struck, Mia would give him an odd little glance, and Kite couldn't help but wonder if she knew. She couldn't have, of course, but that didn't stop him from wondering.

Anyway, at last the battle was over, Elk healed them up, and they moved on. Funnily, this was the only portal on this top floor, so it wasn't long before they moved don to floor two, whose only portal held a Red Wyrm. This beastie was readily disposed of, and presently they'd reached the third floor.

They moved straight down a corridor and into a large square room, which contained a single spinning portal. Mia stopped for a moment, so Elk and Kite did, too, looking at her questioningly.

"If you approach certain magic portals," she said, "Data Bugs will show up." Kite thought that was a rather obvious point, but he did not mention such. "If you Data Drain those bugs," Mia continued, eyes never leaving Kite's wrist, "you can get virus cores from them. There has to be a reason why you have that bracelet." She had seemed to be talking to herself up to this point, but now she looked up, into Kite's eyes with disconcerting intensity. "You _will_ go there to find out the reason, right?"

Kite blinked, glancing down at his wrist, then to the portal. "The reason why I have this bracelet?"

Elk looked between Kite and Mia with a frown, but he didn't say anything. Neither, in fact, did Mia. Instead, the three of them approached the portal.

From it emerged a large mound shaped thing, covered in the signature sickly green glowing splotches all Data Bugs seemed to possess. It looked like a giant turtle, but with a large conical shell, instead of the flatter dome variety turtles generally had. Kite and Mia approached it a bit warily, unsure of its tactics or the best manner of dealing with it.

After a few moments, though, they approached it, slashing at its head (which seemed to be as good a place as any). A moment later, it reared on its hind legs, balancing for a moment before suddenly slamming heavily down into the ground and into Kite and Mia. That hurt considerably, and it also knocked the pair of them back. It took Kite a moment or two to recover and get back to his feet, whereas Mia was up in an instant, looking curiously at him, again. Elk cast his spell, and the pair of warriors soon went back into the fray.

This time, instead of repeating its earlier attack, the monster hopped slightly and spun around quickly, knocking Kite and Mia aside with its heavy stone legs, spread wide and stiff. Again, Mia was up almost instantaneously, while Kite took a few moments to regain his wind and stand up.

At last, however, after much whittling, in Kite's eyes, the orb formed about the creature and shattered, breaking its protection and leaving it quite open for a data drain. So, Kite leapt back, out of the direct line of fire and shouted for Mia to move aside. She complied, and then Kite drained the thing, biting his lip hard to keep from shouting or groaning or making any of the noises he usually did when confronted with the pain of data draining.

In his hand, after the draining, Kite found that he'd received a Virus Core N. With it safely in his inventory, he looked up to behold the resultant, corruption-free monster: a Stone Turtle. With some help from a wood-based spell from Elk, Mia and Kite finished the creature off as quickly as they could, and eventually it fell, turning grey and fading from the landscape.

They stood, gazing at it for a few moments before turning to leave the room. Mia watched Kite's wrist with her peculiar, unblinking gaze, while Elk trotted along behind, looking thoughtful. Kite was lost in thought, himself, for a few moments, before he seemed to decide something. At this point, he stopped and turned to Mia a bit.

He paused, then admitted, "This bracelet… actually belongs to my friend." And then, Kite proceeded to tell Mia and Elk, in brief, what had befallen him thus far, minus, of course, the addition of senses other than sight and hearing to his experience in The World.

Mia listened dispassionately, and then lifted an eyebrow when Kite's tale was completed. "I don't really care what happened to you in the past," she informed him in a dull tone before switching to her more normal 'I-know-something-you-don't-know' one. "But I _am_ interested in what you are going to do with the bracelet in the future. Well… that's about it. If there's anything I can do to help you, I'll try my best."

"Thanks," said Kite, lips twitching into a weak sort of attempt at a smile.

"There's no need to thank me. I'm just doing what I want to do," Mia informed him offhandedly before turning to leave.

"Hey, Mia…?" questioned Elk, staring after.

Mia made no response, but warped out, supposedly with a Sprite Ocarina.

Elk sighed unhappily, gazing at where she'd been for a moment before glaring viciously at Kite. Then, still looking rather unhappy, he left, too.

"…?" Kite, rather confused, followed suit and used a Sprite Ocarina, then wraped back to Mac Anu. By the time he got there, though, he found them already gone. So, after depositing extra things in Elf's Haven and saving, Kite logged out.

He found, upon logging out, that he had one new email. So, he opened his inbox and found that message was from Helba, prompting him to wonder if all hackers knew about him, and, if so, how? He also wondered if she and Mia were at all connected, and his thoughts strayed, of course, into wondering who Helbe really was, anyway. But, he knew he'd never find out just staring at the sender, so he clicked it open.

From: Helba

Subject: Virus Cores I

"After hacking the gate, you should know the importance of Virus Cores as vital items to unlock protected areas.

In order to hack the gate of a protected area, you must collect the type and amount of Virus Core indicated in the Gate Hacking Menu

I will teach you about collecting Virus Cores.

Virus Cores are virus data extracted by performing Data Drain on monsters infected with a virus.

Most monsters in "The World" are already infected and are currently in the incubation period.

So, you can draw Virus Cores from not only the Data Bugs, whose data have been rewritten by the virus, but also from normal monsters as well.

I will state the known Virus Cores and the monsters to obtain them from.

Delta Server and Theta Server

Small-size monsters: Virus Core A

Mid-Size Monsters: Virus Core B

Large-sise Monsters; Virus Core C

(there are exceptions)

This is only when you drain normal monsters. The probability of obtaining a Virus Cores is not 100, but when your spread of viral infection is low, you will have a higher chance of getting them."

Kite read and reread the email, just to make sure he would remember it, and then he sat back, pondering it and its contents for a while before opening the earlier message he'd received from Blackrose and writing a reply exclaiming his surprise at her sophomore-dom. Then, with a sigh, he went about turning off his computer and moving on to other things, like some homework. And then, he collapsed into bed and into sleep.

* * *

A/N:

See? I'm not dead! I've managed to get another chapter out… several months later. Heh… heh…

Um… Well, I can guarantee you I shan't be updating again for at least a month, because I intend to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. And I intend to actually succeed this time. (I did it last year, but when I was nearly 20k words in, a whole bunch of family things cropped up, as well as fifty bazillion school assignments, and I… kind of… stopped writing. Hehe.)

Also, hey! .hack// G.U. volume one is out! If you have a copy, I'm insanely jealous, just so you know. I have neither the money with which to purchase a copy, nor the time to play it right now, so I'm going to have to wait until DECEMBER to play. –glares at people who have a copy- Damn lucky ducks, you.

Anyway, I really do apologize for always taking so long with updates without having a viable excuse for it. And I know this chapter's on the short side, too, but I haven't had time to go through and play all that I need to play in order to write the complete scene that follows this chapter. I'm taking all AP classes, people (well, except for Band and Ceramics, but those are non-homework classes, anway). I need time to sleep and do homework, you know.

Oh, but you must know that Physics is LOVE! So far we've only covered Newtonian Mechanics, but this stuff RAWKS! Um… yes. I'm a total and complete nerd. What do you want?

Oh yeah. Trivia!

Ok… Well, I'll give you a couple extra to make up for not having any last chapter…

1) What is the name of the unofficial (as in not completely canon) manga based off of the games? (it's not been released in America, but there is a website which is slowly, but surely translating it… or at least they say they are. They've got the prologue done.)

2) What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? (If you don't know this one, it's all right.)

3) What is Blackrose's brother's pet's name? And what type of pet is it?

4) What did Reki major in, in college?

5) Besides Noble Grunty, what are the two types of Grunties you can raise in Lia Fail (last server)?

6) What is the food that Balmung's cat loves most?

7) We've all seen pictures of Tri-edge, and we all know that he looks like a corrupted form of Kite. What other two members of the original dot hacker group also appear as corrupted things in the new G.U. series?

8) Name four types of Grunty Food.

And there you go! Lots and lots of Trivia for you to answer!

Anyway, I'll shut up, now, and leave you to click the little periwinkle button below so as to leave me a review. Hint, hint.

Really, I adore reviews, especially ones which offer constructive criticism and which also attempt to answer my trivia, so please feed my addiction and leave one! Please?

Love, Snarky


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